Masterforce: Animated (2015 Reboot)
by Ardent Aspen
Summary: as requested by Brave Kid, this is a reboot of the original (I recommend reading Gage39's story, btw). When Jetstorm's careless actions land Sari, Bumblebee, Jetfire and himself in a parallel world in unfamiliar bodies, it falls to the Autobot Pretenders and Godmasters to find a way to send them home before the Decepticons can intervene!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everybody, and welcome to Brave Kid's "Masterforce: Animated, the Reboot"! (And just in time for Christmas, too!)**

**This story has already been published in its entirety by Gage39 (who also wrote a sequel, in case you're interested), so if you've read that then you already know what the plot of this story is. That being said, I was asked to present it in my own personal style of writing, so I'm giving it a go! **

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><p><strong>Chapter 1:<strong>

_**Where are We?!**_

In the years to come, whenever Sari Sumdac chose to look back at this particular moment in her life, she would always come to the conclusion that the Jet-Twins were a few chips short of a microcomputer.

In fact, they probably had no business being on active duty, given their repeated and flagrant lack of anything approaching common sense.

Of course, one had to wonder what that said about _Sari_, given that _she _had been the one to say yes when the twins offered to give her and Bumblebee a tour of Sentinel Prime's ship.

(Well, in all actuality Jetfire and Jetstorm just wanted to give the femme youngling a tour, but they liked Bumblebee enough not to mind when he tagged along. Jetstorm was pretty sure he had just as good a chance at impressing the pretty "organic Minicon" as Bumblebee did.)

She'd been sitting on Bumblebee's shoulder, trying not to doze off as Optimus and Sentinel talked. ("Talked" a word here meaning "Sentinel is trying to shout and intimidate and bully Optimus and Optimus is having none of it". ) At the moment, the current topic of dissent was changing every three seconds, so Sari wasn't certain if they were fighting about "a half-Pretender Minicon" (whatever _that _was) being a member of the team, or the fact that Optimus had just called Sentinel an "Over-confident, under-intelligent, entitled little Decepticon-reject". Yeah, it was probably that second one.

"_Psst!_"

Sari and Bumblebee looked around to see a cheerful gap-toothed grin flashing at them from the shadows. It seemed that even the twins, who had once idolized Sentinel Prime, were getting pretty sick of his power-tripping.

"_Ey_, Sari! Do you want to see our ship?" Jetstorm whispered.

"Yeah! We can be showing it to you!" Jetfire popped up from behind his brother's shoulder, fiddling with his goggles. It didn't take much to convince Sari that _anything _was better than sitting there and listening to the Primes argue.

"Mind if I come too?" Bumblebee discreetly gestured towards Optimus and Sentinel. "Those two are about to go nuclear, and I don't wanna stick around for the fallout!"

The Twins' enthusiasm seemed to fade just the slightest bit, but they weren't about to leave a fellow Autobot in the lurch. "Come then, quickly before they are noticing us!" Jetfire beckoned to them.

Touring the interior of the ship turned out to be rather like walking into a china shop with preschoolers on a sugar rush. While showing her and Bumblebee around, Jetfire and Jetstorm had to touch literally _everything_, and show them how it all worked. And naturally, once _they _got to try it out, _Bumblebee _had to try it out, and overall Sari began to feel as though herding cats would have been simpler. It was a great relief to the young femme when they came at last to the Space Bridge chamber in the back of the ship, near the quantum engines. If they were viewing the Bridge, then it meant that the tour was nearly over. Sari wasn't eager to go back outside to where Optimus and Sentinel were doubtless still fighting, but Jetstorm was becoming a little exhausting, and Jetfire was just goading him on.

"So…" Sari powered up her jetpack and hovered next to the door. "You guys really keep a Space Bridge in here? It doesn't look big enough to hold something like a Transwarp Bridge."

"_Da_! We really are keeping it here!" Jetfire crowed happily.

"Yeah, Space Bridges are not _quite_ the same things as Transwarp Bridges. I'm thinking they are more specific," Jetstorm agreed.

Sari's optics widened as the door slid open, revealing a chamber lined with consoles and heavy cables. In the center sat a scaled-down model of a Transwarp Bridge, with a more rounded frame to fit into the hold of the Elite Guard ship.

"Wow!" she breathed, "Bulkhead would love this!" The girl flew close to the structure and laid a hand on it. Thoughts drifted through her mind of the many places she'd been and things she'd seen. "It must be nice," she sighed, "Being able to go wherever you want to, whenever you want to."

Her mind traveled to Cybertron, thinking of the home and heritage she had never known. Prowl had once promised to take her to see the place where he had once guarded her and her many stasis-locked siblings, but for now she had no way to get there.

"Well," Bumblebee interrupted her thoughts, answering her last statement, "I mean, they could go anywhere they want as long as it isn't _here_. Y'know, 'cause Omega Supreme blew up our Bridge." He sounded a little annoyed.

"Oh come on, 'Bee," Sari lightly thwacked his shoulder, making a tiny _clink_ sound. "He was just trying to help! Besides, he did take most of the Decepticons with him."

"_Most _of them." Bumblebee grumbled.

"Ack! _Prekrati_! Brother, do not touch that," Jetfire cried out in alarm as he spotted his twin leaning casually against one of the lit consoles.

Jetstorm jumped away from the buttons, but the damage had already been done. The floor began to vibrate as a low groaning sound built up into a steady hum that rose steadily in pitch and volume. From a point in the center of the Bridge frame, a small point of light appeared and expanded rapidly into a whirlpool of bluish-green light. A force like gravity began to tug on the young Autobots, dragging them towards the portal.

Sari tried to fly against the pull, but to no avail. "You idiots!" she snapped, "What did you do?!"

"I am not the idiot!" Jetfire protested, managing to point at his brother, "Jetstorm did it!"

"I don't care who did it!" Bumblebee yelled, trying to grab hold of something - anything - to keep himself from being pulled in, "I want that thing turned off!"

"You are not Prime!" Jetstorm pulled a face at the older mech.

"JETSTORM!" everyone shouted.

"Alright alright!" a petulant look eclipsed his visored features. "But I think the button is broke. I cannot make it stop!"

Steadily, the Bridge drew the four younglings closer and closer until they each clung to the frame in a last, desperate attempt to stay in the chamber. Sari's optics glowed an angry blue out from under her helm as she locked her gaze on the orange and blue mechs across from her.

"Boys, if we survive this, I _will _kill you both," she ground out from between gritted teeth. Then she lost her grip and the world spun into blackness.

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><p><em>W-what? Where?<em>

There was a bright light, shining red behind her eyelids, but Sari couldn't bring herself to open her eyes yet. She could feel something soft and prickly beneath her back, and trailing against her cheek as the air filled with the lazy drone of insects.

Wait.

Insects?

Sari blinked and looked up at the leaves of a tree over her head, utterly confused. As the last thing she remembered was being pulled through the Bridge, the only logical conclusion she could think of was that _this_ - wherever _this _was - was where the Bridge had spat them out. Provided it hadn't separated them all, of course. So far as she knew, Earth was the only planet in the sector capable of supporting organic life, so unless Saturn had suddenly decided to start a "keep our planet green" project, she had to still be on her own world.

With a soft groan, the girl slowly turned her head to the side, and found herself looking straight into the tanned features of a boy only a little younger than herself. With a muffled exclamation of surprise, she shot up into a sitting position and discovered two more boys at the base of the tree in a considerably uncomfortable-looking tangle of arms and legs. She would have guessed that they'd fallen out of the tree and been knocked unconscious, but they seemed oddly familiar. Sari ran her hands through her hair - only mildly surprised to discover that her armor had retracted, evidently deciding that she was in no danger - and tried to get her bearings.

The tree and the small, grassy area surrounding it unfolded into a larger park-like area. It looked a lot like a place in Detroit that her father used to take her to for picnics. Well, perhaps one of the boys knew where she was, or how she had gotten there. For a moment, Sari had a terrible mental image of herself plummeting through the atmosphere and knocking the trio unconscious and hoped that it wasn't what had happened. Grumbling to herself, the techno-organic femme gently shook the boy who was next to her.

"Hey, hey, you okay?"

He mumbled something for a second before shooting upright with a screech. Sari leaped back to avoid being struck by flailing limbs as the shorter teen dropped his head into his hands groaning. Sympathetically, Sari sat down again and brushed dead grass off of his bright yellow jacket.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." she apologized.

"S-sari?" the boy groaned in an all-too-familiar voice, "Ohhhh my aching processor!"

Sari's optics widened. "Ah, darn."

She poked the boy in the cheek, justifiably unsettled by feeling flesh instead of metal. "Bumblebee, what happened?"

Bumblebee blinked his baby blues at her questioningly for a moment before glancing down at his hands. With a shriek that would have woken the dead, he tried to stand up, tripped over his own feet, and landed flat on his back.

"No! No! We're back in Soundwave's virtual world! How did this happen, Sari? We've got to get out of here!" Panic set in and tears beaded up in the teen's eyes. "I don't _wanna _be a virtual human!" he wailed, "I wanna be a _me_!"

Sari tried to get his attention for a few seconds with no visible success before she lost patience. "Oh knock it off!" she snapped, smacking him upside the head, "We're not going to figure anything out by sitting around and crying!"

"I'm _not _crying!" Bumblebee sniffled, "My optics are just leaking. Organics do that sometimes!"

A groan from behind them alerted the pair that the other two boys had regained consciousness. With a sigh, Sari stood and moved to untangle the two. "Here, come on. You guys had a nasty fall."

The slightly taller boy in the blue flightsuit tried to stand on wobbly legs and settled for leaning against a tree. "Oog," he groaned, twisting the ball-cap over his short brown hair, "My processor is aching!"

Still sitting on the ground, the twin in the orange flightsuit nodded dismally. "Mine too!"

Sari walked away, grumbling.

"Sari?" Bumblebee gulped.

"Nope. Sari is in Face-Palm Land right now." the femme replied sharply.

Bee turned back to the two lanky boys at the tree. "Uh...Jet-twins?" he asked.

"What?" they asked in unison. They blinked slowly before the situation hit them and they jumped back.

"Gyaaah!"

"Brother, you look _prichudlivyy! _What did you do?" Jetfire giggled, poking his twin.

"You are also looking different, Brother! I didn't do anything!" Jetstorm snickered, poking back.

Bumblebee glared up at the pair, who were a good head taller than him - and yet appeared to be at least a year younger - and tapped his foot impatiently. "This is all _your _fault!" he growled, "If Jetstorm hadn't been playing with that control board, we wouldn't be stuck in these fleshie bodies!"

Jetstorm crossed his arms and pouted. "It isn't being _my _fault!" he whined.

"Yeah!" Jetfire jumped in front of his twin, full of fraternal protectiveness. "It was _your _responsibility, not Jetstorm's!"

Flabbergasted, Bumblebee stood making soundless gesticulations in the air a moment before finding his voice again. "_My _responsibility!? _You _Autobrats were the ones who took us on the tour in the first place!"

This was, of course, completely true. But the Twins had locked themselves into Solidarity Mode and were not likely to back down any time soon. They sniffed and glanced haughtily down at the brightly-clad boy.

"Well _you _are older Autobot, _you _should have been stopping us!" Jetstorm smirked.

Bumblebee was beginning to turn a fascinating shade of vermilion as Sari decided to exit Face-Palm Land and lend a hand.

"As much as I'd like to see the ultimate - and I'm guessing messy - end of this conflict," she said sarcastically, "I think the most logical thing for us to do right now is to go looking for my Dad and the others. They'll probably know what to do with us."

It was quickly agreed that this was much more productive than standing around and arguing, so the quartet began to make their way towards the city. For five blessed minutes, all was quiet, and they were able to enter the city in peace. Of course, it was too good to last, and before they'd gone past the third traffic light the arguing had picked up again. Sari had just begun to quietly plot to herself varying creative ways to dispose of her three comrades when she was distracted by a commotion up ahead.

In an intersection curiously devoid of people, something like a cross between an Old West bar-room brawl and a Power Rangers battle had broken out. At the heart of it was Optimus - no real surprise there - alongside Prowl. They appeared to be fighting two flying Decepticons she didn't recognize. While this was not a scene she was unfamiliar with, there was something off about it, like walking into a room to find one piece of furniture out of place.

It wasn't until Optimus caught one of the two Decepticons by the wing and pulled the unfortunate down that Sari was able to put her finger on it. The Optimus _she _knew had been primarily a rescue-mech who was more of a think-on-your-feet type who used a fire-axe. The Optimus she was looking at _now _seemed almost as though he had years of experience in fist-fights and grappling. Her attention was drawn back to the Decepticons when the purple jet swooped low, firing on Prime until he released the blue one. The latter then pulled off a fairly impressive set of aerial maneuvers in the confined space, making a steep climb until both Decepticons were out of the way of the taller buildings.

With a mighty shout of "Wing Cross!", the two suddenly combined - much in the fashion of Jetfire and Jetstorm - into a multicolored superjet, considerably larger than Safeguard. Prowl and Prime dodged frantically as the combiner rained down a heavy suppressive fire on them.

"We gotta help them!" Bumblebee started for the intersection, only for Sari to catch him by the collar and drag him back behind a concrete road barrier.

"Not like that you can't!" she scolded, "Remember how you never let me fight when I was a little kid? Same principle." The boy scowled at her, but was unable to argue.

"T-then maybe _you _go help them?" Jetfire offered in a squeak. The idea was not without merit.

"Okay, here's the plan," Sari - being the only one with actual experience being human - quickly decided that she was the leader of the "team" and drew up an impromptu battle plan. "You three stay here, out of sight, unless I call you. I'm going to get closer, but I won't jump in unless things get hairy. You know how Optimus gets about me fighting." All four grimaced at the thought of the generally overprotective Prime.

As Sari crept closer to the fight, she missed Jetstorm whisper to Jetfire, "Why would things be growing hair?"

Once she was within three yards of the fight, the femme youngling realized she probably wouldn't be needed at all. Prowl activated his hologram clones and moved about in a flurry. The Decepticon combiner fired indiscriminately at anything Prowl-shaped, allowing the original to attack from varying angles. He moved so quickly that he almost appeared to be teleporting as he flung throwing stars first from one roof, then from another. All this was merely diversion, however, to give Prime time to act.

Unexpectedly, the familiar red-and-blue Autobot shouted in a rather unfamiliar voice, "_Super Ginrai_!" An 18-wheeler trailer that had sat placidly at the side of the street for the duration of the fracas shot forward and combined with Optimus's body, re-forming into a considerably taller warrior.

"Holy transforming megazords, Batman!" Sari blurted out, shocked beyond belief. She was _positive _that Optimus hadn't been able to do that that morning. And as far as she knew, it was impossible for a Cybertronian to upgrade themselves that quickly - _at least, not without a Key, which you don't __have_ _anymore, _her thoughts added unhelpfully.

The combiner seemed to take this as a challenge, and swooped low, scraping its wingtips against the buildings around it. Optimus didn't stop for banter, or warning, or any plan of attack. He charged forward, fists clenched. A bright light seemed to be coming from his armor, distorting his appearance somewhat. With a low growl, Prime spread out his hands, and Sari yelped as chunks of loose pavement rose up into the air, surrounded by the same energy field projecting from the large mech.

"Not again!" the Decepticon(s) snarled. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, the combiner wheeled away, breaking off his/their attack. "Another day, perhaps, Autobot."

Prowl came to stand on the rooftop beside Prime, and both mechs shared a disapproving glance before turning to survey the damaged intersection...and the tiny, armored figure waving at them from below.

Prowl jolted. "That's...not one of ours, is it?" he murmured to the other as he squinted from the roof.

Sari activated her jetpack and flew up to hover in front of the titans. "That was pretty sweet, boss-bot! But...what happened to you?"

Prime stared at her without the slightest shred of comprehension in his optics. "Do you know her?" he whispered to Prowl, "I didn't think there were Minicons on this planet."

Prowl frowned and stroked his chin. "I do not believe she is a Minicon," he observed, "Nor is she an acquaintance of mine."

Beneath her battle-mask, Sari frowned. "Come on, guys, knock it off! Of course you know me, unless there's _another _band of identical Autobots who have been half-raising me!" She snorted and crossed her arms. "Seriously, Optimus, enough with the jokes. You were never any good at them anyway."

The red and blue mech blinked and leaned away from her. "My name," he said, shifting down into a red and white semi truck, still attached to the trailer, "Is not Optimus Prime."

The door of the truck popped open and out stepped a dark-haired man in his late teens or early twenties. He shook out a beat-up leather jacket and slung it over his shoulder as he offered Sari an apologetic grin. "My name is Ginrai," he said.

Just as Sari was beginning to think that Bumblebee's theory about being trapped in Soundwave's virtual world weren't as far-fetched as she thought, Prowl also shifted down into a motorcycle with a human man sitting atop it. It looked exactly like his holoform, but it was certainly not a hologram. The sound of sneakers against pavement warned Sari that the boys had decided not to stay put after all.

Jetfire waved his arms vaguely at the two men. "What! What? What. What? _What?!_"

"_Prowl?!_ Buddy, I know you love the human species, but what _happened_?!" Bumblebee managed to squawk after a few breathless seconds. As he had before, Prowl - or rather, the policeman - made a confused face.

"I...I am sorry, have we met before, young man?" he asked politely.

Sari began to pray for a distraction. Something - _anything _- to break the extremely awkward silence that fell after Prowl attempted to introduce himself. A distraction was promptly provided in the form of three Autobots who looked to be younger than even the Jet-Twins. The first, a pink and white femme about a head shorter than Prowl normally was, skidded to a halt at the sight of the collected humans. Behind her, a slightly taller mech youngling decorated in blue, black, and white nearly plowed right into the femme. He did a rather impressive course-correct at the last moment and windmilled his arms wildly to keep from tipping over. A second mechling in bright red and orange careened around the corner and ran smack into the blue and white Autobot, and both were hard pressed to keep upright.

"We're - _huff huff _- here!" the femme announced, bent slightly as if catching her breath.

"Can we help?" the red mech asked eagerly.

Ginrai offered the trio a lopsided smile and shook his head. "Sorry, guys, it's already taken care of."

"Awww!" The blue younging drooped in a dramatic show of disappointment. "We missed all the action _again_!" As he pouted, he transformed into a rather odd-looking police car.

Having already seen humans masquerading as her friends, Sari was not as surprised as she could have been to see a human boy tumble out of the car. She _was _in a bit of shock to realize that the boy was only about twelve years old. There was a smudge of dirt across his nose, and his dark hair stuck out in several different directions at once.

"By the Allspark!" Bumblebee whispered to Sari, "I didn't think humans were allowed to drive that young!"

"They most _certainly _are not!" she whispered back.

The other two younglings followed their friend's example and transformed into a rather unorthodox pink rescue helicopter and a somewhat scaled-down firetruck. As with the police car, the drivers of the false-Cybertronians turned out to be children, sixth grade at the oldest. The helicopter pilot - a petite blonde girl in a school uniform - adjusted the bright red bow at her collar and stared curiously at Sari's armor. The boy beside her was taller, though still perhaps a head shorter than Sari, and appeared to be wearing either a toga or a bedsheet. Sari found herself thinking that the boy could have used a good haircut, as the giant ponytail of blue was probably a liability in battle.

Jetfire tilted his head and stared at the three children, tipping his entire torso to one side to do so. "Can humans be changing into Cybertronians?" he asked in a suspicious tone, "Because I always was thinking they could _not_."

Bumblebee patted him on the back in what was meant to be a reassuring manner. "Yeah, no. That's...that's not supposed to happen. At least, I don't think so."

The three middle schoolers glanced at Prowl and the young man calling himself Ginrai, who in turn looked to Prowl and then back to Bumblebee, the Jet-Twins, and Sari. Despite the yellow femme's recognition of them, Ginrai had no idea who they were. It bothered him, because there was just something _off _about the quartet. Well, besides the part where he couldn't tell if the femme was a Minicon, or some kind of Headmaster like the children.

"Look," he said, shrugging on his jacket. "You want answers? So do we. Why don't you guys hitch a ride with us back to the base, and we can work it all out there?" He ignored Prowl's alarmed look until the man cleared his throat softly.

"I would hesitate to say that's a wise decision, Commander. For all we know, they could be spies for the Decepticons."

"Hey!" Bumblebee yelled, "I resent that"

Sari clapped a hand over his mouth with a hissed, "_Shut up!_" Once her friend had quieted a little, she turned to the human who appeared to be in charge.

"Okay, we'll go with you."

Ginrai nodded and opened the passenger-side door of the semi cab. "Alright, you four can ride with me." He waved to the others. "The rest of you, roll out and tell the others we're going to have company."

The cab of the truck had not been built to accommodate five human beings, and they all found themselves rather squished. Having never been on the inside of a vehicle that wasn't a ship of some kind, Jetfire and Jetstorm gingerly poked the seats as if worried they would swallow them whole.

"What is this?" Jetstorm asked, pinching the fabric between two fingers.

Sari acted as though she didn't see the weird look Ginrai sent the taller of the Jet-Twins, and attempted to explain. "That's called _upholstery_. You know, seat cushions. Humans are more fragile than Cybertronians, and need it to protect them."

Bumblebee stretched obnoxiously, arms flung out and across his three seat-mates. "Yeah! And it makes sitting down _much _more comfortable!" he yawned.

"Oh." Jetstorm seemed satisfied with the answer, but instantly thought of another question to ask. And another. And another. In fact, for the duration of the ride to the Autobot base, Sari and Ginrai attempted to deal with questions about everything from the purpose of a speedometer to the reason for cupholders.

At last the truck pulled up in front of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse, constructed of drab, unwelcoming cement. As the heavy garage door rolled upwards, Sari found herself thinking _At least some things never change_. She climbed over the boys to sit beside the truck door and was readying herself to hop out when she realized that the place was empty. No big-screen tv, no couch, no makeshift kitchen, even the factory equipment looked as though it hadn't been touched in years. _Might've spoken too soon..._Sari scanned the room desperately for some kind of proof that giant alien robots lived there, but there was nothing.

In the drivers seat, Ginrai ran his thumb over a small button or sensor on one of the strange gold cuffs around his wrists, and a high tone rang out. In response, a hole opened up in the floor, revealing a long ramp down into a brightly-lit space. The semi truck rolled smoothly down, and near the base of the ramp the Twins noticed Prowl (or not-Prowl, they weren't sure yet) and the three children beside their vehicles. Ginrai parked the truck and jumped out, followed by the others. Sari deactivated her armor and ran her hands through her dark red hair, open-mouthed.

"Wow…" she breathed, staring at the sophisticated setup. It looked like a hybrid of the inside of the Elite Guard ship and something out of a spy movie. Adding to the strange organization-like feel of the secret base was the fact that it was _crowded_. There were humans all over the place - and Sari noticed that the little girl with the helicopter appeared to be the only other female.

A rather distinguished-looking man in a business suit looked up at Sari and her team and his eyebrows nearly met his hairline. Sari thought they were going to fly right off his face when he heard Bumblebee whine, "Wah! There are so many _humans _in here! What's going on?!"

The businessman (or so he appeared to be) marched over with a stern expression that reminded Sari more of Optimus Prime than anything. Folding his arms, he addressed Ginrai in a kind, but slightly stern, tone.

"Ginrai, who are these children?" he asked, "And why would you bring them here?"

"It's, well, it's a long story." Ginrai admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

A snort came from right behind the serious man, and a smiling teenaged boy with auburn hair moved to stand beside him. "Knowing the Commander," he pointed out, "I'm sure it's an interesting tale!"

"Yes indeed," said the businessman, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind _explaining the situation_, right Ginrai?" There was a touch of humor under the placid tone, and Sari caught a twinkle in the man's eyes.

Ginrai made a playful salute and turned to his "strays". "Okay, I guess we should start with some introductions, right? Right."

He motioned to the man in the suit, "This upstanding gentleman is Hawk, the redhead snickering is Lightfoot, and that unfortunately hideous fellow at the end of the row of computers is Road King."

"_Ugly?!_" Road King - who was really quite good-looking - spluttered, "I'll have you know, _sir_, that I won the Grand Prix without so much as breaking a sweat! That's more than I can say for _you_, Mr. Truck Driver!"

Ginrai leaned over and threw a friendly arm around Bumblebee's shoulders. "You notice, he didn't deny being ugly!" he said cheerfully. Then he turned his attention back to Road King.

"Easy to win the Grand Prix when that car the old man gave you does all the work, right?" he teased.

It might have come to blows if Hawk hadn't stepped between the two men with a pointed look. "You two can go back to insulting and bludgeoning each other later if you like," he said, "But at the moment we have more important matters to deal with."

Turning away from the two, he bowed slightly to Sari. "Perhaps you would care to tell us how you got here and why?" His warm smile set the quartet somewhat more at ease, and having named herself unofficial leader of what she had dubbed the Transwarp Quartet - name subject to change - , Sari spoke for them all.

"Like - Commander? - Ginrai said, it's a long story, but if you've got time I'd _love _to tell you." The girl shot a poisonous look at the Jet-Twins, who would have wandered away had Bumblebee not grabbed their arms. "The Twins here wanted to give Bumblebee and me a tour of their ship, and thought it'd be a good idea to monkey around in the Space Bridge room. _Someone_-" and here she stared very hard at Jetstorm "- accidentally activated the thing. The four of us got dragged through by the energy vortex and woke up outside the city with them as humans."

Hawk blinked. "I'm sorry, but...why would the boys being human surprise you?"

"Well, the last time I saw them, they were giant alien robots," Sari replied with a touch of sarcasm.

Hawk did not react to the sarcasm. "That is what we are," he said mildly. "We disguise ourselves as humans."

Sari blinked for a moment, not sure what to make of this revelation. "Well _they _don't," she said, pointing at the boys. "They turn into vehicles. I've known the species for - well, since I was sparked, but that's a whole other story - for a long time, and I'm pretty sure they would've told me if being a human _and _a vehicle was an option. You can scan humans as an alt-mode, but then you can't be a car or anything." As if to demonstrate her point, Sari summoned her armor and then deactivated it.

"All the same," Bumblebee piped up as he attempted to keep Jetfire and Jetstorm from pushing buttons or pulling levers, "That's actually kind of cool. How do you go from humans to robots and back?"

Prowl had been at a console in the back of the chamber, reading a report of some kind for most of the conversation, but now he stood and walked towards the gang, smiling at them.

"Perhaps it would be best if we were to _show _you rather than tell you, my young friend," he said. Standing side by side, Hawk and Prowl crossed their wrists and shouted, "_Suit On!_" in commanding tones. Cybertronian basic armor, modified for human anatomy appeared over their bodies exactly the way it did when Sari summoned hers. The two exchanged a smile at the flabbergasted looks on their guests' faces and upped the ante, crying out, "_Pretender!_"

The armor extended up and up, changing and shifting until the two figures standing before them were the Prowl they knew from their universe and blue and gold Autobot seeker, whose red wings stood out against the rest of his paint scheme.

"That's cool." Bumblebee managed after a shocked silence, "Really cool."

"Brother, look! He is being flyer, like us!" Jetfire squealed happily, "We are not alone!"

Sari was certainly impressed, although the suits of armor raised more questions than they answered. Crossing her arms, she spoke up again. "Alright, Mr. Hawk. I told you everything _we _know, so now it's your turn. What's going on?"

As Metalhawk returned to his secondary (human) alt-mode, he looked a little hesitant. "Under the circumstances, I don't know for sure," he admitted. "It could be that some interference with your Space Bridge set you in a different state of phase and dropped you into some parallel universe. As to why your friends became humans, well I haven't the slightest clue, I'm afraid." He twitched slightly at the familiar _crack-hiss_ of a soda can opening.

Ginrai took a swig of the carbonated drink and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Cool, sounds like an old sci-fi show!" he commented. With a slightly disgusted sound, Prowl - still in his full Autobot form - leaned down and pushed the man away from the children.

"Please ignore the man behind the console," he said dryly, "He isn't a real Pretender."

"What is Pretender?" Jetfire asked, wide-eyed.

Hawk raised his eyebrows and beckoned to the quartet. "Come with me."

He led them to a room adjoined to the first, barely separated by a partial wall. In the center was a low indentation containing a hologram projector. Hawk bent down and turned it on, projecting an image of a very familiar planet. Taking the tone of a lecturing professor, Hawk faced the teens and began to explain.

"We are Autonomous Robotic Organisms - or, Autobots - from the planet Cybertron. Our bitter rivals are a faction of our species called Decepticons. During the early days of the great War, a handful of us left Cybertron to chase down a particular band of Decepticons we'd been fighting."

The projector began to cycle through pictures of many and varied planets and solar systems as Hawk talked. "From one end of the universe to the other, through star system after star system we hunted them until at last they led us to this little galaxy. We very nearly caught them, and engaged in a fierce battle during which our ships were damaged. Both the Decepticons and the Autobots were forced to make emergency landings on the third planet from the sun, and the Autobots managed to defeat our enemies and seal them away in the four corners of the Earth."

Hawk turned off the projector and sat down on the edge of the indentation with a wistful look. "Of course, after that we discovered that we had no way to return to our homeworld. But we had each become - well, not to sound cliche or anything, but - enchanted with the organic sentients that inhabited this planet. Such spirited and unexpectedly brave little folk, humans are. Rather like the way hobbits must appear to humans." He chuckled a little. "Each of us decided that if we could not return to our own people, we might as well adopt the human people as our new family. We took the forms of human men and have been living among you for centuries ever since."

It was a little staggering, to say the least, and opened up a whole new world of possibilities for transformation as far as Sari was concerned. She thought the part about being "enchanted" by humanity was a little sappy, but overall rather touching. Jetfire found himself wondering if these "Pretenders" were some kind of triple-changer, and whether he might be able to do it too...well, provided he ever got his _real _body back. Jetstorm mostly wanted to know why he wasn't a giant robot anymore.

"So…" Bumblebee straightened his ball-cap and motioned to Ginrai and the three children from before, who were standing in the open doorway. "Are those guys Pretenders too?"

Hawk shook his head. "No," he said. "You see, some newer Decepticons arrived on Earth years later, and they freed the ones we had trapped. They had discovered a way to transform humans into a hybrid species via the use of a kind of gold bracelet that they wear. It bonds the wearer with a _Transtector_ - which, as best we can describe, is a vehicle made out of an unusual kind of rock that even we can't identify."

He beckoned to the blonde girl, who hurried to stand next to him and showed a pair of silver bracelets on her slim wrists. "These are a variation of the gold-Cybertronium bracelets that Ginrai wears; the ones made of silver-titanium alloy allow a human to become the headpiece of a Transtector body. We call them _Headmasters_." The Autobot-man put a hand on the girl's shoulder and both smiled. "In the case of Minerva here, and the boys, Cab and Shūta, We call them Headmaster _Juniors_. They have a limited amount of power, so they mainly function as an Autobot Rescue Team."

As Hawk led Minerva, Sari, and the three boys back to the main control room, he paused to point out the golden cuffs on Ginrai's wrists. The younger man still leaned casually on the doorframe, soda can dangling from one hand.

"The ones we call _Godmasters_, like Ginrai and Lightfoot, have much more firepower than the Headmaster Juniors, and are considerably stronger. We've run several tests, but so far it looks like they contain an almost unlimited source of power. Ginrai, however, has double that amount. That is why, if you stay with us long enough to witness some battles, you may hear us refer to him as Super Ginrai."

"Yeah," Ginrai joked. "I'm way cooler than the rest of these idiots."

"No, you're not," Road King said.

Hawk ignored the pair and continued as though he hadn't been interrupted, "The two Decepticons that you saw Ginrai and Prowl fighting earlier are brothers. Their names are Hydra and Buster. Like Ginrai and Lightfoot, they are Godmasters, but they chose to join the Decepticons. They seem to think that since there are two of them, they can beat Super Ginrai. But, as can well be imagined, so far they haven't succeeded."

"Sir." Prowl had long since returned to his human body, and had printed up the report he had been reading earlier. He tapped his chin thoughtfully as he gazed down at the printed sheets. "I think they were sent out to lure us away from that shipment for Sumdac Systems."

"You're usually right, Prowl. I don't doubt it," Hawk agreed.

At the name "Sumdac", the four members of Sari's team snapped to attention - not that they hadn't been listening before - and glanced at each other uneasily.

"What do you mean? What's happening with my father's company?" Sari demanded, crossing her arms and glaring at Prowl, Hawk, and anyone else she thought might have answers.

"Wait, you're _Powell's_ daughter?" Ginrai exclaimed. He sounded ever so slightly nauseated by the idea.

"_Powell_?"

Sari sounded equally nauseated, and behind her, Bumblebee mimed a heaving action. "No way! Gross! I'm Sari _Sumdac_! My father is _Isaac_ Sumdac. You know, the inventor? Created Sumdac Systems? Ringing any bells?"

"I'm afraid," Hawk said, casting a sympathetic look at the distraught femme, "that Powell runs Sumdac Systems now. It has become part of Isis Corp."

"Which is a front, owned by Decepticons." Road King added darkly.

"What?" Jetfire exclaimed.

"I am not even knowing Mr. Sumdac and I know that is bad!" Jetstorm said in a subdued tone.

Shūta swung his sneakers back and forth as he sat on the edge of the control boards and stared at the newcomers. The girl with the dark red hair was growing steadily paler, and seemed like she was wobbling a little bit. "Hey, it's Sari right?" the boy asked. "Are you okay?"

"I think," Sari said as she backed up, "I think…" Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to process the information.

"I need some air." With that she turned and fled the room, leaving behind worried stares and a general feel of discomfort.

"Maybe I should go to talk to her?" Minerva asked softly, peering around Hawk's arm to look in the direction the older girl had run.

"Nah, it's okay. I'll do it," Bumblebee mumbled. No one else understood Sari the way he did, after all. She had almost lost her father once before: did she really have to go through it a second time? The teen-formerly-known-as-an-Autobot made a gesture that might've been a wave, and hurried up the ramp to the warehouse above in search of his best friend.

"Did I say something wrong?" Shūta asked, tone slightly plaintive. The third Headmaster Junior punched his arm playfully, then returned to spinning the swivel chair as fast as it would go.

"Yeah, probably." Cab snorted.

"Do the two of you mind staying here?" Hawk asked the Jet-Twins, "I know you're confused and possibly even a little frightened right now. I am sorry for that, truly. But there are some questions that we need to ask you."

The lanky boys signalled that he should wait a moment, then turned to quietly converse.

"Should we be trusting them?" Jetstorm whispered, "They seem nice, yes, but I do not want to be taken for fools."

"Well," Jetfire gnawed his lip, "What would Sentinel be telling us to do?"

At this thought, both boys snorted. "Sentinel will be saying that they are filthy organics and not to be near them." Jetstorm answered.

"Oh! That is settled then. We should be doing opposite of what Sentinel says to do." Jetfire grinned widely and turned back to Hawk.

"We be not minding," he answered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! This is chapter two. You might notice that it's the second half of the first chapter from the original version. Since I'm expanding it a little, we ran out of room in chapter one. Anyway, when last we left the gang (henceforth known collectively as the Visitors…), they had discovered "Godmasters" and "Pretenders" and "Headmasters". We learned that Isaac Sumdac is missing and the company is run by Powell as a front for Decepticon activity, and Sari just had a freak-out moment.**

* * *

><p>There were advantages to having been trapped in Soundwave's virtual world.<p>

While 'Fire and 'Storm could barely walk a straight line in their gangly human bodies, and had no idea what being organic meant, Bumblebee at least had the memories of being trapped in the false world to keep him alive. The boy - how odd to think of himself as a _boy,_ and not _Autobot_ or _youngling _- snuck a glance over his shoulder and muffled a smirk. He had no idea what Hawk wanted to talk to the Twins about, but one of them had just completely overbalanced while trying to stand on a chair. Bumblebee was sure there was a story behind Jetfire standing on the chair, but seeing Ginrai and Road King scramble to catch the dismayed former-flyer simply made him shake his head and grin.

Being fourteen meta-cycles old - which Prowl seemed to think made them about thirteen human years old - , Jetfire and Jetstorm were still growing into their frames anyway, and would occasionally trip over their own pedes. Thus they took their human foibles in stride and didn't seem overly embarrassed by them. Bumblebee decided to leave the Twin-wrangling to the Pretenders and slipped up the ramp to find Sari.

He found her sitting on the edge of the broken-down conveyer belt, head in hands. As the shorter teen approached, Sari took a deep, shuddering breath and turned towards him. She offered a tiny, and very false, smile. "Hey, Bumblebee," she said. Her tone was low and husky, as though she had been crying.

Bumblebee climbed up beside her and sat down. "Hey yourself."

He looked sideways at her, debating with himself over the wisdom of pointing out her red and puffy eyes. Finally, he settled on a generic, "What's wrong?"

Had anyone else asked, Sari would likely have brushed them off with a glib answer and a happy mask. Not so with Bumblebee. He was the one person besides Prowl that knew _all _her secrets - well, except for the ones even _she _didn't know - and she trusted him. The girl ran her hands down over her face, stretching the skin downward as she answered.

"Everything. Everything is wrong. We're in a parallel dimension, you and the Twins completely changed species, Powell and the _Decepticons_ are running my dad's company...and to top it all off, he's missing. Again." With a muffled shriek of frustration, Sari flung herself back to lay on the stilled conveyer belt, staring at the ceiling. "It's not fair! What does the universe have against Dad anyway? Why does all this weird stuff keep happening to us?!"

Bumblebee reached down and laced his fingers through hers. "I...don't know, Sari, I really don't know. But we're gonna get out of here! You're really smart, they have lots of tech, what could go wrong?" He squeezed her hand. "We're gonna get home sooner or later, okay?"

"Okay." Sari inhaled deeply and let out a gusty sigh. Then she blinked and looked around. "I don't hear crashes or screaming, but just to be sure, where are the Twins?"

The boy beside her made a vague gesture back over his shoulder in the direction of the lowered ramp and huffed. The hand came back down and landed limply on his head, drawing off the hat. Finally free, black hair sprung up and out as Bumblebee shook his head.

"They're still down in the HQ or whatever-it-is. Hawk wanted to talk to them about something." Absently, he twirled a finger through his curls and sighed. "I think it's about a way to get us home."

"He seems nice. If he can figure out what the Twins did and reverse it, that makes sense," Sari allowed, "But otherwise I don't see how they're going to be much help."

"Hey now," Bumblebee elbowed his friend slightly. "They're hyper as scraplets and never bothered to properly download Earth language programs, I'll give ya that one. But they're not dumb. Optimus says they were both repair-work bots before some kind of accident."

Sari scowled and didn't answer. She remembered Optimus and Ratchet discussing the Twins' origins in hushed tones when they thought she and Bumblebee and Bulkhead were paying more attention to video games. The fact that Autobot scientists had reformatted the two wounded younglings based on coding copied from Starscream bothered her more than she would admit. She wasn't sure how science and ethics worked on Cybertron, having been raised an Earthling, but Sari thought the whole process sounded iffy at best.

A gurgling noise interrupted her thoughts, and she caught Bumblebee making a horrified face at the front of his jacket. "What in the Allspark was that?" he squeaked.

With a giggle, Sari picked up Bee's cap and helped him stuff his hair back under it. "It's just your stomach rumbling, Bee. It's a human's way of knowing when it's time to refuel."

He looked relieved. "Oh. I remember what the feeling is like from the Soundwave world, but I'd never heard it make a sound like that before. I thought something was wrong!"

The old conveyer belt made low creaking noises as Sari hopped down and brushed herself off. The Autobot….Autohuman...people were still down in their base, and hadn't bothered to raise the secret ramp. Sari guessed it was to allow them to re-enter. For a moment, the girl studied the bright glow of the hidden bunker, then she turned her gaze to the city outside the garage.

"Y'know what? It's been a weird day. Let's get some food," she decided. "BurgerBot is probably still a thing in this world. You wanna go?"

"Sure!" Bumblebee made a flying leap and landed in an impressively-balanced crouch at Sari's feet. "Can we get fries? I wanna see if they taste as good in real life as they did in the virtual world."

Whatever else had changed in this odd dimension, at least the BurgerBot was still the same as ever. They each ordered a combo meal so that Bumblebee could get his fries, and Sari picked a milkshake for each of them. She set her food down at a table and asked Bee to watch it for her while she went to go wash up. Bumblebee had just finished getting a straw for his milkshake and figured it wouldn't be too hard to just walk and eat at the same time. At the booth next to his own table, Bumblebee stopped watching where he was going.

With a dismayed yelp, his sneakers caught the edge of a crack in the linoleum and he flung out his arms as a reflex. There was a decidedly wet _schlopp_ sound and Bumblebee could hardly bring himself to look. Pickles slid down the face of a grim-looking teenager, just a little older than Sari. Flecks of mustard stood out against his hair - a shade of dark blue that could _not _have been natural, Bee thought - and the remains of the milkshake were spread across a leather jacket that was probably expensive.

Bumblebee winced at the damage and looked around the table. The remains of his fries had landed in front of a square-jawed young man in his twenties who wordlessly picked them up and started eating. He had a mildly hostile look in his eyes, but seemed more interested in the fries. Bumblebee hoped he wouldn't notice the bit of lettuce gracing his mullet. Next to the fry-eating giant, a little boy appeared to be trying his hardest not to laugh at the hamburger-and-milkshake-covered teenager. Fruitlessly trying to stifle giggles, he pulled a red bandana down over his eyes until he calmed down, then pushed it back up and raised both eyebrows expectantly.

All three boys wore the same silvery cuffs on their wrists as the three children in the care of the Pretenders, and for just a moment Bumblebee hoped they were simply Autobots he hadn't met yet and that they would all laugh it off someday - though he knew as well as any other that an Autobot badge did not make one a good person. Sentinel Prime was a, well, _prime _example. Sadly, his hopes were dashed when the blue-haired boy seized him by the shirtfront and stood quickly. Bumblebee dangled several inches off the ground, wondering why nobody was doing anything.

"This is _not _your lucky day, punk." the razor-thin boy snarled. "Do you have _any _idea how much this jacket costs? You're gonna pay for this!"

"Yeah!" the ten year old at the table chirped with a glint of malicious glee in his eyes, "Nobody makes Wilder look like an idiot and gets away with it!"

"I don't look like an idiot, Cancer! Shut up!" Wilder snapped, but Cancer just grinned back. He elbowed the giant sitting next to him and gestured to Bumblebee.

"Whaddya think, Bullhorn? Do we make him pay?"

Bullhorn shook the now-empty fry carton to make sure there was nothing left, brushed the crumbs from his jacket, and stood up, casting a large shadow over Wilder and Bumblebee both.

"Eh, sure. Let's pound him."

"L-look fellas, it was just an accident!" Bumblebee squeaked, trying to shield his face, "I'm sorry about the jacket, honest!"

"_Sorry _ain't gonna cut it, kid," Wilder sneered, and pulled back a fist.

When Sari stepped out of the bathroom, Bumblebee came flying across their table and landed at her feet, clutching his nose. After making sure he was not seriously injured, Sari put her hands on her hips and stared at him.

"Bumblebee, can't you go even one hour without getting into trouble? Or is that too much to ask?" she sighed.

As a vaguely ominous threat about making sure Bumblebee could never spill anything again floated over the booths and Bumblebee gulped. "It's too much to ask."

Sari looked up across the restaurant at the boys who had hit Bumblebee, blood boiling. Sari Sumdac was not the kind of girl who ran from fights. They certainly didn't look scarier than Megatron, that was for sure. She leaned down and whispered to Bumblebee, "Walk past me through the open door, slowly. Don't stop or look behind you."

Then she marched up to Wilder and his gang, surprising them. "Explain this. Now." she said coldly.

Wilder was more taken aback than anything else. No human had ever stood up to him before! (The Autobot Headmaster Juniors didn't count, they were human plus something else.) There was a fire in this girl's eyes that was a little unnerving. Still, it was not so unnerving that he felt that he was in danger. But it _was _just enough that he felt threatened: a random girl had just challenged him in front of the entire restaurant. Worse, that girl looked unnervingly familiar...

"Aww, did wittle girl's boyfwiend get hurt?" he mocked.

She raised an eyebrow. "Aww, did the widdle bitty bully just _looove_ his food so much he wanted to wear it? How _adoooorable_!" she mocked back.

Before any of the three boys could overcome their shock, she darted past them and out the door to catch up with Bumblebee.

"Okay, _now _run!" she yelled, grabbing his hand.

Fighting fire with fire had _not _been the best option and she knew it. In fact, she knew perfectly well that Optimus would have scolded her for responding to bullying with bullying. Seeing how shocked Wilder had been by the stern approach, she almost wondered whether continuing in that vein would've been successful. But he'd made her mad and she'd decided to respond in kind before considering the consequences. The trio of bullies chased them for about a block or two before giving up.

"What did you _do_?!" Bumblebee panted, trying to catch his breath.

"Nothing you're allowed to do, that's for sure," Sari gasped. "Geez Bee, I can't take you anywhere, can I?" _Nevermind that I'm the one who made all __three_ _of them mad…_

They leaned against each other in the alley until they caught their breath, then Bumblebee pushed himself upright and peered around the corner at a line of bulldozing and construction-bots rolling down the street.

"Hey...where are those guys going in such a hurry?" he wondered.

Sari recognized a company symbol on them, and here optics narrowed. "Let's find out."

They found themselves at a row of old houses - pre robotics-boom era - and a group of people shouting and holding up signs of protest.

"What's going on?" Sari asked a protestor.

"These houses are being torn down to make a golf course! In the middle of the town!" the man growled.

"That's just awful!" Bumblebee cried, "Who's responsible for this?"

Then his whispered to Sari, "Wait, what's a golf course?"

"Who's behind all this?" Sari asked another protester.

The woman scowled and adjusted the baby on her hip. "Sumdac Systems."

Sari stiffened. Bumblebee stepped back as rage filled the girl's eyes. She snatched up a spare sign and climbed up on top of one of the bulldozers.

"Down with Powell! Down with Powell!" she shouted. It soon developed into a mass chant.

"_Down with Powell! Down with Powell!"_

Overlooking the spectacle on a nearby rooftop stood the bullies from the BurgerBot. Wilder had cleaned himself up, but still smelled suspiciously of mustard. Having been completely humiliated, he had opted to say nothing at all, putting on his "cool and mysterious" vibe. Bullhorn crossed his arms and frowned deeply at the protest below. Sitting up on the roof was boring him tremendously, but Wilder was being stubborn again and wouldn't move. Cancer sat on the edge of the roof, kicking his feet back and forth.

"Look at them!" the youngest boy snickered, "Pathetic, huh? Those stupid humans actually think signs and shouting will beat the Decepticons!"

Despite himself, Wilder scoffed in agreement. He squinted down at the protesters, and noticed the girl in the pale orange dress leading the rabble, and the boy in yellow beside her. His eyes widened as the pieces finally clicked into place. _Now _he knew why the girl had seemed so familiar.

"Bullhorn." Wilder swallowed hard. "Call Powell and tell him we've got a problem."

* * *

><p>Powell set the stack of bills down in annoyance as the phone rang. He did not like to be disturbed when counting his money. He picked the receiver up with a jerk and snarled a question in lieu of a greeting.<p>

"_WHAT?!"_he shrieked, nearly tearing the desk phone from its setting, "What do you mean, _Sari Sumdac is there_?! Nobody knows where the kid is. Hear me? Not even us! You're mistaken."

He paled further as Bullhorn quickly described the teenager in question and her feisty manner. There was no denying it: that certainly sounded like the daughter of Isaac Sumdac. With hurried instructions to keep an eye on the situation, Powell slammed the phone down and took a moment to calm himself. He ran shaking hands through his slick pompadour and lifted the receiver again.

Once he had dialed, he waited until a deep voice answered on the other end of the line before he spoke.

"Lord Giga, it's Powell. We have a situation." Nervously, the man licked his lips and paced back and forth in front of his desk. "Sari Sumdac is in Detroit. She just turned up at the forefront of a rally protesting your new golf course."

He winced and held the phone away from his ear as an enraged, "_WHAT?!" _echoed through the line, followed by a heavy sigh.

"_That is most...unfortunate. The Decepticon Pretenders will be along shortly to disperse the rabble._" There was an audible _click_, then a steady tone, revealing that Lord Giga had hung up.

Powell glanced out the window in the direction of the protest and silently willed the Pretenders to move quickly.

* * *

><p>"<em>Down with Powell! Down with Powell!" <em>

The chanting had risen to a frenzy. Bumblebee had managed to get the protesters to stomp their feet and slam their signposts against the ground in unison, and the younger members of the crowd were drumming on the bulldozer, creating a terrific racket.

"What do you think, Sari?" Bee asked, grinning up at the furious girl on the truck, "We're going all "Less Miserable" on them!"

The scowl broke into a giggle and Sari shook her head. "That's _Les Miserables_, Bumblebee, but you've got the idea."

Further speech was cut off as the ground began to shake. Murmurs and cries began to circulate among the crowd, who looked about with a nervousness born of experience.

"Ow, what was that?!" Sari righted herself and climbed out of the bulldozer's scoop. "Bumblebee, tell me that wasn't an earthquake."

The boy swallowed hard, eyes fixed on a point somewhere over Sari's left shoulder.

"It's not an earthquake."

Like an amalgamation of nightmares, three creatures that nearly defied description approached over the horizon. The first creature walked on two legs like a man, but wore the face of a vampire bat, and great black wings spread out behind it, casting shadows wherever it walked. The second was in form like a Wrecker or Constructicon, but with the head of a fish, and the face of the third creature was like an ox's skull, and it walked upon cloven hooves. And the people who stood on the street cried out in fear, and there was a great confusion as they fled.

Though he was not in his proper body, and was in an unfamiliar world, there were instincts that could not be taken away from Bumblebee, and he wove through the chaos attempting to help those being trampled and lost in their neighbors' haste to flee. Bumblebee crouched to shelter a small girl until running feet had mostly passed by. As he handed the wailing child to her relieved mother, the young Autobot's ears - though human now, and _much _less sensitive - caught the distant sound of mocking laughter.

On a rooftop overlooking them all, Wilder stood with his arms crossed and a malicious smirk spread across his narrow features. He pointed down at Bumblebee, and at the humans crying out in terror, and turned to say something to his companions. All three of the wayward juveniles threw back their heads and laughed with the abandon of those without pity.

"That does it," Bee snarled, utterly disgusted, "I'm gonna-"

Abruptly a hand caught his arm. Sari gave a small, subtle shake of her head. "You're gonna do _what_?" Seeing the fury in her friend's eyes, the girl turned him to face her. "Yeah, those kids need a walloping, but you don't have the luxury of armor to protect you, let alone enough knowledge of the human body to know where your vital organs are! You wouldn't last long against them - not in this state."

She flung an arm out in the direction of the three monstrous beings, who still marched towards what little remained of the protest. "If you can't take three punks at a diner, do you really think you're equipped to take on a giant bat, the creature from the Black Lagoon, and a minotaur?"

It galled him. Sari did not think he could handle himself! Never mind that she was right, he did not want to hear it spoken! Bumblebee turned his head to the side and muttered sullenly, "You're starting to sound like Optimus."

As the creatures drew close enough to leer down at the pair, Sari activated her armor and clutched Bumblebee's hand so tightly her knuckles turned white beneath the gauntlet. "Well," she whispered, "I suppose at least _one _of us should."

Her battle mask snapped into place, covering her mouth and nose, and the space around her optics was shrouded in shadow. A blessing, for now the ugly creatures before her would not be able to see the fear written across her face. These were like no Decepticons she had ever seen: in fact, they hardly looked robotic at all. Perhaps they were techno-organic then? Well that was hardly a comfort. If they _were _of Cybertronian origin, what could they possibly have scanned to make them appear as though they might've starred in a 1940s Universal Pictures horror film?

Bumblebee's fingers trembled between her own, and he had paled considerably. It was slightly reassuring to know that he was just as frightened of these unearthly beings as she, though it likely had much to do with the fact that Bumblebee watched all the same scary movies that she did, and shared many of the same fears.

Frozen to the spot as the chiropteran biped approached them, the teenagers attempted to give off the appearance of boldly standing their ground. The bat lowered its ugly head as though preparing to bite them both - an injury that would be damaging to Sari, and possibly fatal to Bumblebee - and both tensed, prepared for the worst. A soft, almost polite, cough interrupted the misshapen beast, and it turned its head in annoyance to see what had stopped it.

It was the red-headed young man with the twinkling eyes from the Autobot base, arms crossed and a smirk playing across his lips.

"Is that Lightfoot?" Bumblebee hissed to Sari. Sari merely shrugged, as she had forgotten for the moment which faced belonged with which name.

Prowl stood in his human Pretender body next to Lightfoot, in parade rest. His mustache twitched a little and he exuded an air of stern disapproval as he turned his dark sunglasses on the monstrous bat.

Beside the two stood an unfamiliar man sporting a dark blonde mullet - which, oddly enough, did _not _look like it was in the wrong decade when worn by this particular gentleman - and an expensive suit. He slid his glasses down his thin nose slightly and glanced over the rims in a teasingly condescending manner at the monsters.

The bat-creature drew back from Sari and Bumblebee - to their immense relief - and rotated to face the three men. "How nice of the _Autobots_ to finally join us!" He spat the word out like a curse.

Sari wondered if this meant that the fish-creature, bat-creature, and bull-creature were somehow Decepticons, or just mutants like they had faced back home.

"Always a pleasure to ruin your day, Blood," Prowl calmly answered the (appropriately named) vampire bat.

The fish creature shifted its ungainly body to glare down at the three, focusing on the newcomer. "Hey Lander!" it burbled, snickering to itself, "How's your vision?" Then it laughed uproariously, as though it had just told some kind of joke.

The man tipped his head back and let loose a mighty sigh. "Gilmer, Gilmer, Gilmer, you poor sad fish. We have _got _to do something about your atrocious excuse for battle-banter!"

"Suit On!" Lander shouted, crossing his wrists - at which point the two teens they had rescued realized that this was also an Autobot - "Pretender!"

A gleaming silver chassis replaced the bespectacled man, and the mech twirled a large blaster with a smirk. "Care to go a few rounds?"

Gilmer roared in a watery gurgle and a black static-like mist poured out of his joints, obscuring him.

"What the-?!" Sari took advantage of the moment to seize Bee by the arm and drag him into an alley, where they stared in horrified fascination. When the black cloud subsided, the fish creature had grown to the size of Prowl, and had exchanged its blue, marine hide for a faded pink armor.

"I'll smash you!" Gilmer growled. Lander, of course, merely scoffed and leapt towards him.

"Nothing else for it," Prowl murmured to Lightfoot, "You may as well transform. I'll take Blood, you deal with Dauros. Keep him away from the Visitors." Running out a little ways in front of the boy, Prowl crossed his wrists and repeated the command codes that deactivated his mass-displacement technology and returned him to his Autobot body.

Blood leapt back, shifting up into his Decepticon frame just in time to avoid being crushed as Prowl drove him back with a flying kick. Had he still been in his monster body, the blow would have been devastating. Blood caught Prowl by the ankle joint and flung him into the line of bulldozers with a resounding _clang_! The Cyber-ninja recovered quickly and darted back into the fray.

Lightfoot hurried to the mouth of the alley and peered in at Sari and Bumblebee. "It's going to be alright, you two," he flashed a grin. "We do this all the time! Just hang back here a bit until these clowns get the message, okay?" He raised an eyebrow at Sari's armor and tapped her helm, listening to the gentle ringing sound. "Though I'm guessing you'll be okay even if things _do _get hairy."

With that he sprinted back into the street and skidded to a halt in front of Dauros. The ugly minotaur glowered down at him and transformed in the same manner as his comrades, then raised one foot to flatten the young man.

"_Transform: God On!"_

In a dizzying blur of movement, Lightfoot was gone and a young Autobot knelt on the pavement, Dauros' foot caught in his grip.

"Uh oh." Dauros' optics widened.

With a grunt of exertion, Lightfoot tossed the foot upward and flipped Dauros onto his back. Before the brutal mech had a chance to recover, the Autobot Godmaster fired repeatedly as he stood guard over the two Visitors in the alley.

Behind them, Gilmer took a swipe at Lander, who blocked it easily, but did not see Gilmer's other hand until he'd been knocked back a pace. He shook his helm and checked for scratches on his finish before throwing a stiff punch at the other.

"What was that supposed to be?" he taunted, "Metallikato-sigma? Amateur!"

"Don't-get-cocky!" Prowl called through gritted denta. Blood kicked out, meeting an x-block. In the half-second that he was caught off balance, Prowl shifted slightly to the left and performed a knife-hand strike to Blood's knee. The Decepticon grunted, but did not cry out. He fell back, glaring.

Strike for strike, blow for blow, and so the dance continued.

* * *

><p><em>Pretender Base<em>

Hawk stared at the screen, pulling at his lip and trying to make sense of the data. It didn't make sense. It couldn't! Yet here it was, as sure as the spark that pulsed in his chest: the Pretenders were multiplying. The implications shook him.

The man turned from the screen to study the two boys - only a little older than his own Headmaster Juniors - who were currently engaged in some kind of playful mock-fight with Cab. He almost hated to break it up, but he needed to speak with the Twins alone. Gently shooing Cab away, he lowered himself into a chair and motioned the lanky pair to do the same.

"Boys," he said quietly, "Do you remember how I said I needed to check some things after we ran medical scans on you?"

"Yes," Jetstorm said, catching the undercurrent of tension in the man's voice, "What be wrong, sir?"

For a moment, it almost looked as if Hawk's eyes glistened with moisture, but it was gone in seconds. He leaned forward and took the Twins' hands. "Wrong? No boys, no. Nothing is wrong! In fact, I could hardly think things could be more incredible!" Seeing that they did not understand, he cleared his throat and tried to speak over the sudden lump that had appeared there. "Jetfire, Jetstorm, this may be a little hard to hear, maybe even a little frightening, but I want you to trust me. I don't know how you escaped our notice all those years ago, or how you managed to find your way to this planet without guardians, but the facts cannot be denied. You are Pretenders."

For so long he had thought that his small band would be the only Pretenders on Earth - he certainly didn't intend to count the Decepticons - and that, cut off from the Allspark and Cybertron, they would never see a new generation. The Headmaster Juniors and the Godmasters had become that new generation to a point, a hybrid species somewhere between Human and Cybertronian. But to find Pretender _children_? That was a thing unheard-of!

"P-pretenders?" Jetfire blinked and slid the orange aviator's hat off. He ran his thin fingers over close-cropped hair and took a deep, shuddering breath. "Then...we are not Autobots?"

"I am thinking we are _still _Autobots," Jetstorm mused. "Aren't we, Mr. Hawk?"

He smiled at the bewildered pair. "Yes boys, you are." He stood and helped them both to their feet. "I know we covered the basic history of our presence on Earth before, but I think we've got a little more catching-up to do with you. Come on, just a few more tests."

The Twins hurried to catch up to the pleasant man, one on either side of him. "Mr. Hawk," Jetstorm asked shyly, "Are Bumblebee and Sari being Pretenders too?"

Hawk frowned. "I don't know, Jetstorm," he admitted. "I have my suspicions about what the young lady may or may not be, but I'd need to run some tests firsts. We'll find out when they come back."

* * *

><p>On the other side of the base, Ginrai stood by his truck, whistling as he finished waxing the cab. It had taken a good washing to get his young passengers' grubby little fingerprints off the paint. The thought struck him that they might have messed up the upholstery as well, and he climbed up into the cab to check. As he straightened seat covers and adjusted the rearview mirror, something seemed to tug at his mind.<p>

"Wha-?" the man murmured.

Again, more insistently this time, he felt a prod. It was as if his eyes were being inexorably drawn to the glove compartment, just as they had been the day he first discovered the Master Braces. Ginrai narrowed his eyes and glanced suspiciously at the dashboard.

"What are you doing?" he mumbled, crawling further into the interior. "I've already got a pair on!"

Just to humor the tugging in his brain, Ginrai popped open the glove compartment. And stared. Two spheres rested peacefully inside, though the Godmaster knew full well they contained either Headmaster or Godmaster cuffs. Cautiously, he withdrew them from the compartment and leaned back in the seat, examining them.

"Now where did you come from?" he wondered aloud, hefting one sphere a little. "And how did you get in my truck?"

Deciding that Hawk was better off worrying about these things than he, Ginrai slid out of his truck and headed for the Autobot commander's office. He had a hunch that it had something to do with the Visitors.

"I've got a weird feeling about this," he sighed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! I'm sorry it took so long to get this out (and it's quite a long chapter). The world of jobs and insurance proved to be a little more daunting than expected at times. (But I had someone contact me about a job interview, so that's pretty cool, even if I don't end up getting the job). Anyway, I probably won't do a lot of author notes in this story (I don't think), and I'll be doing openings and closings like a tv show. (See below)**

* * *

><p><strong>Last time, on <strong>_**Masterforce: Animated,**_

"_**Lord Giga, we have a situation. Sari Sumdac is in Detroit."**_

"_**How nice of the Autobots to finally join us!"**_

"_**Always a pleasure to ruin your day, Blood."**_

"_**Jetfire, Jetstorm...you are Pretenders."**_

"_**I already have master-braces! Now where did you come from?"**_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2:<strong>

_Unbelievable! Bumblebee, a Godmaster?_

.

It likely didn't say much for a city when violent battles between giant monsters and titanic robots were so commonplace that the news crews ignored them entirely.

Prowl smoothly ducked a clumsy punch and circled behind Blood. Keeping a hand at the base of the Decepticon's blue helm, he moved with the larger mech. Blood turned frantically, trying to grab the slim Autobot, but Prowl remained just out of his reach with an infuriating smirk on his faceplates. The Cyber-ninja leapt up in a split as Blood kicked out and backwards, hoping to knock him off his pedes. Barely moving at all, Prowl avoided six consecutive punches with simple twitches to the right and left. Blood was beginning to tire.

It was plain to see that the larger mech's unrestrained fighting technique against an opponent he had underestimated had drained his energy. He was not too tired to keep his footing steady, but his swings were growing slower and his strategy was messy if not non-existent. Ready to end the duel and return to the Pretender base, Prowl shot a stun blast at the Decepticon's face, then followed up with a rapid chain punch. From their hiding place in the alley, Bumblebee and Sari gaped.

"The thing! He did the- the - the Ip Man thing -with the hands, and the punching!" Bumblebee squealed, fists clenched tightly in front of his mouth. Beside him, Sari merely made unintelligible croaking noises that she usually labeled as "geeking out" when asked.

Lander made a slight harrumphing noise as he was knocked backwards by a lucky shot from Gilmer, but took the time to send Prowl a thumbs-up.

"You see?" he called out, "It's like I always say: make your decisions with style, otherwise you won't get the girls!"

"I fail to see why that is relevant to the moment," Prowl replied, and he multiplied his holographic clones to aid his fellow Pretender.

Gilmer looked back and forth, wary of what he knew was a trap. By the time he had hit upon the idea that the Prowl that cast a shadow was the real one, Lander had delivered a stunning blow to his chin with a dramatic flourish. Gilmer struck out blindly, catching one of Lander's bright red shoulder guards.

"Oh for heaven's sake, I just waxed that!" the ersatz man complained, and redoubled his attack.

"Wow." Sari raised her eyebrows. "This Lander guy seems like quite a character. Or like a grown-up version of _you_, Bee," she added in a teasing tone.

"Hey!" he yelped, "I'm not that concerned with appearances!"

"You were when we first met!" she countered.

"Okay," he admitted, "Ya got me there. But you have to admit, that guy makes it work."

Between the pair of them, it was generally agreed that Lander was the basic equivalent of if Tony Stark were actually the Dread Pirate Roberts. Lightfoot cheerfully seconded their opinion even as Dauros drove him back along the street, past their hiding place.

The young Godmaster winced as the Decepticon ripped up a traffic light and used it to club him across the chest. The transtector metal repaired itself quickly, and by the time he'd recoiled from the initial force of the blow, his chestplates were whole once more. Dauros swung the traffic light again, but Lightfoot caught it with both hands. The two warriors struggled, matched just evenly enough in strength and endurance that neither could wrest the pole from the grip of the other.

"What do you say, Dauros?" Lightfoot grunted, digging his pedes into the asphalt, "Are you going to surrender, or shall we pursue the fracas to its final stupidity?*"

(_*__**bonus points if you know what that's from**_)

"I was about to ask you the same question!" Dauros snarled back. He prepared himself for one last heave to yank the traffic light from the Autobot and brain him with it.

But it was not to be.

"Dauros! Quit playin' around with that wimp! We've got better things to do."

Blood made a poor attempt at bored nonchalance as he sounded the retreat. Gilmer and Dauros both looked distinctly disappointed as they were ushered away in an undignified scramble, leaving Prowl to shake his helm and sigh.

"We've been at this for centuries. You'd think they would realize that we've heard _all _their excuses for retreating by now."

He shifted back down into his Pretender body and smiled at Sari and Bumblebee.

"You can come out now, children."

"Yes," Lander yawned and slipped his glasses out of his pocket and back onto his face. "I think we'd best report back to Hawk. I think that last attack may have been catalyzed by our Miss Sumdac here showing her face in public."

He motioned to his waiting vehicle body - which Sari still found to be an _exceptionally _bizarre concept - and Sari gingerly slipped inside.

Lightfoot took Bumblebee with him, and Prowl rode separately as they headed back to base.

* * *

><p>"Metalhawk, I am not thinking I did this right."<p>

Jetstorm stared miserably down at his noticeably human hands. "I crossed my wrists and said _Suit On_ and _Pretender_, but I am not transforming!"

Hawk placed a hand on the boy's shoulder with a patient smile. "It's alright, Jetstorm. You're doing fine. You're just not used to reconciling the human alt-mode with the form you were sparked with."

After a second's thought, he added, "And you don't have to call me Metalhawk while I wear the guise of a human. It is, you may well guess, a little difficult to blend in with the humans with a name like Metalhawk. Just "Hawk" will do. You boys might want to think about shortening your names while here as well."

"Like maybe 'Fire and 'Storm," Road King loudly suggested from the computer console where he was working, "Because, let's face it, saying "Jetfire and Jetstorm" over and over is gonna get old _real _fast."

"Well _Road King _is not being much better," Jetstorm muttered rebelliously. The man made an "as you wish" gesture and returned to the computer.

"Mr. Me- ah - _Hawk_, are we having to say _Suit On _and _Pretender _ for _every _time we are wanting to transform?" Jetfire groaned dramatically, slumping a little.

"Until you master unconscious transformation - a daunting task for someone as young as the two of you are - verbally processing the commands will help you focus your processing energy better," a new voice interjected. Prowl strode down the ramp into the base, arms folded peacefully behind his back.

"Hawk, we need to debrief you on the downtown attack."

The Pretender commander was about to reply when he glanced over his old friend's shoulder. "Ah! You've found our missing Visitors after all!" Promising to hear Lightfoot, Lander, and Prowl out at a slightly later time, he turned to the teens behind them.

"Miss Sumdac, if you don't mind, I'd like to speak to you when you have a moment."

The girl flushed slightly, hoping she wasn't in trouble for running off with Bumblebee instead of staying at the base with everyone else. "Uh...okay. Do you mind if first I take a look at any transport technology you might have, though?" That hadn't come out the way she had wanted it to. "Um...no offense. But our Autobots and my dad are probably _really _worried about us by now."

"I understand, Miss Sumdac," Hawk answered gravely. He made a vague gesture to the younger man at the computer. "Road King can show you our data logs on interdimensional matters."

"I'll come too," Lightfoot offered with a shy grin. "We don't get a lot of visitors, interdimensional or otherwise."

Well, it was a start, at least. Sari would work with what she had. While she still knew next to nothing about her origins beyond how she'd come to scan a human, Sari sometimes guessed that she had been originally meant to be some kind of technician or scientist, given her natural aptitude for interdimensional or otherwise temporal/spatial calibration in Transwarp technology.

"Thanks," she sighed, and turned to Bumblebee. "You coming?"

"Yeah, in a minute," he waved her off with a half-smile. "I wanna see what the Twins are up to."

Hawk glanced at his "class", now grown to three, and decided something. "Perhaps I had better relocate you to the gym...I don't know why I was thinking _younglings learning transformation_ and _room full of Very Important Technology_ would go so well together, but at least we caught it before anything was destroyed, right?"

He chuckled as he shooed the trio ahead of him into a lift that took them down to a training room - well, really more of a training _floor _- and waved them inside. "Take note, boys: even serious old Autobot leaders make mistakes. Now, to pick up where you left off…"

Jetstorm looked down at his hands and slowly crossed his wrists. _Be thinking of robot body, _he thought to himself, _Like when you are transforming from jet mode. You can do this!_

He took a deep breath - by now somewhat past the initial novelty of needing to breathe - and said quietly, "_Suit On!_"

There was no need to shout, after all, if it wasn't going to work.

He squawked as an odd sensation caught him unawares. He was now covered in a light armored suit that bore a striking resemblance to his natural Autobot body, though fitted for a human being's protection. There was even a visor with data readouts and a Heads Up Display.

"Oh well done, Jetstorm! And on your second try, too." Hawk nodded with a pleased expression on his face.

Bolstered by the praise, Jetstorm steadied himself and shouted, "_Pretender!_"

The floor seemed to grow far, far away, and the humans seemed to shrink just as if Jetstorm had been Alice in Wonderland.

"Brother! How is view up there?" Jetfire teased from below. He was slightly jealous that he hadn't been the one to pick it up first, but he was genuinely thrilled to see that his brother could still use his Autobot body - though the helm was a bit rounder at the top than before, and sensory horns had been added.

"Haha, you are all puny!" Jetstorm giggled, making a face at Hawk, Bumblebee, and Jetfire. He bent down, hands on knees, and squinted at a fourth figure entering through the elevator door at the far end of the room. He certainly hadn't been in the base before, of that Jetstorm was sure.

"Hey! Who are you?" he asked bluntly.

"I might ask you the same thing, _junge_," the stranger said with a friendly smile. He stood several inches taller than Hawk, though his thick mess of black hair added a centimeter or so to his height. There was a touch of incredulousness in his lightly accented voice, as though he was having difficulty processing what he was seeing. "How does such a young Cybertronian find his way to Earth without a guardian?"

"Hello, Phoenix," Hawk turned to the newcomer with a touch of surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"_Guten tag_, Hawk," Phoenix answered. "The airstrip is temporarily closed due to weather, so I thought I'd come see these "Visitors" the children commed me about." He cast an appraising glance at the transformed Jetstorm, and the boy in matching orange armor on the floor, trying to emulate him. "Since when are there juvenile Pretenders?"

"I'll explain later, old friend," Hawk whispered back. "For the moment, their stay is sadly temporary."

He turned back to see that Jetfire had managed to shift up into his robot mode as well, finding that it matched his brother's. "Well done, boys! Very well done!"

"Captain, how are we transforming?" the orange Twin asked innocently.

Hawk smiled and donned his own suit of armor, unfolding into his full Autobot body. In this form, he still stood head and shoulders taller than the Jet-Twins. "It's no more complicated than simply saying _Transform!_ aloud, Jetfire. In fact, as you get older, you may not even need to say it aloud."

To demonstrate, he shouted the word and transformed into a brightly-colored F-22. "You see?" the blue and red airplane said, "It's very simple! Now you try."

"Wait!" Jetfire held up both hands. "Why be Bumblebee not transforming?"

After watching the Twins and Hawk for several minutes, Bumblebee had decided to try transforming on his own. But no matter how he positioned his wrists, or how loud he said "_Suit On!" _and "_Pretender!"_, nothing happened. He stared down at his hands, beginning to feel a twinge of panic.

"Yeah, why isn't it working?" he asked, desperately attempting to keep a semblance of calm. "I did everything you guys did!"

Phoenix placed a hand on the scrawny boy's shoulder. "Listen - Bumblebee, is it? - I don't know what kind of Autobot you were before being forced through an interdimensional rift. Perhaps you simply weren't made into a Pretender when the universe tried to compensate for your sudden appearance?"

It was a horrifying idea. If he wasn't a Pretender, it meant he wasn't an Autobot by nature in this universe, that he hadn't been born a Cybertronian. That was the only life and culture Bumblebee had ever known. The mere thought of having to become something else weighed heavily on him, along with a crushing sense of disappointment. He was afraid to open his mouth, lest he find himself in tears with no way to hold them back.

"B-bumblebee?" Jetstorm asked, concerned.

With a shaky smile, the older youngling waved him off. "It's...it's okay. I'm, ah, I'm going to find Sari."

Phoenix offered him a sympathetic look as he trudged back to the elevator and shut the door.

* * *

><p>Lost in a cloud of thoughts - none of which were particularly encouraging - Bumblebee wandered the hallways. How would he ever be able to fight Decepticons if he couldn't transform? He couldn't: simple as that. With no armor and no experience in a fleshie body, he would be crushed in an instant. Sari would still be his friend, he didn't doubt that, but what good was he if he couldn't fight Decepticons? Was he even an Autobot now?<p>

Bumblebee hated the thoughts and the direction they were taking him. His inability to transform, or even to have a shred of Cybertronian CNA, was forcing him to confront a side of himself that he had been pretending didn't exist. As an Autobot, he protected humans, befriended humans, learned and embraced human culture, but deep in his spark he found that the idea of permanently becoming a human nauseated him. He wasn't supposed to have prejudices like this! He was an _Autobot_, and Autobots never struggled with things like that, right? _Real _Autobots, anyway. Sentinel Prime didn't count. But then...maybe _he _wasn't a real Autobot either, if he still thought Cybertronians were superior to humans. Maybe it was better that he didn't change back.

The youngling pulled his hat down low, even though there was probably no one to see his teary eyes. He needed to talk to Prowl, or Optimus. Heck, even Jazz would probably know what to say, how to say it, whether his doubts about himself had any basis in fact. He didn't think he was better than humans, he loved humans! He just didn't want to _be _a human! They were so foreign from everything he had ever known, and it was a wide enough gulf that he was having great difficulty adjusting to an organic body and controlling limbs that had neither circuits nor nanites.

Distracted, he did not see the body walking the opposite direction until the two collided, knocking each other off-balance.

"Hey, watch it, kiddo!" Ginrai straightened his jacket and raised his eyebrows comically. "Keep going like that and you'll walk right into the machinery."

"Oh." Now completely embarrassed, Bumblebee pulled his cap even lower. "Sorry, I didn't see you."

"Yeah, I guessed that part." The college-aged man's eyes twinkled, letting the younger boy know he wasn't upset. "You enjoying life in an alternate dimension so far?" he asked.

The Autobot youngling thought for a moment, considering what answer he thought the man expected to hear versus what he felt. Finally, after thinking through the events of the day, he shook his head.

"Honestly, Mr. Ginrai? No. No I'm not. I can't transform - I _tried_, believe me - and I can't fight, so I'm pretty much useless. Like that wasn't enough, I made an enemy today. Three, actually, and they're all bigger than me." He paused, and amended the former statement. "Well, when they're transformed they are. And only because they're here. Back home, I'd still be at least a little taller than them, so that's something. But now I'm stuck here in a world that's not mine, with villains that aren't mine, in a body that _definitely _isn't mine, and everything feels _wrong_."

To say Ginrai was surprised by the boy's sentiments would not be entirely accurate. Switching back and forth between a human body and a Cybertronian one as often as he did, he sometimes felt uncomfortable, or wondered where his humanity ended and his Cyber-ness began. A Godmaster wasn't a human, nor was it a Cybertronian: it was a completely separate lifeform, a hybrid of the two. He remembered the foreign feeling of being a Godmaster for the first time, and guessed that it was likely much worse for a Cybertronian becoming organic for the first time.

Ginrai awkwardly cleared his throat. "Look, kid...I don't have the words that are going to make this okay, alright? I don't think anybody does, not even Hawk. But if you wanna talk about it, vent about it, whatever, you come find me. I won't talk and I won't judge, promise. Sound good?"

Bumblebee pretended to be adjusting his hat so that he could wipe his eyes, and Ginrai obligingly pretended not to notice. "Sure, sounds good," the boy managed in a croaking whisper.

"Hey."

Bumblebee looked up at the young Commander.

"I saw the girl you came here with, back that way." He made a gesture behind him. "First right, then second door on the left. Follow the hallway all the way to the chamber at the end, if you want to find her."

"Oh." Bumblebee took a deep breath and found the energy for a small smile. "Thanks!" With that, he darted off.

Ginrai stood, hands in his pockets, and watched him go. He felt sorry for the kid, and hoped being around his friend would cheer him up. Ginrai shook his head and made his way back towards the lift Bumblebee had exited before.

"Now, to find out where these extra Master-braces came from," he murmured. Hawk would probably know, provided he wasn't too busy with the little twins that were apparently Pretenders.

* * *

><p><em>Elsewhere, in Detroit…<em>

The streets were practically empty.

Empty of humans, that is.

In this alternate universe, Detroit was as susceptible to giant monster attacks as a city in a kaiju story, and the humans that wanted to live had long since learned to stay indoors if the ground started to shake. Enough people had died at the hands of Dauros, Gilmer, and Blood that no one doubted their strength or ferocity.

Although, if a human had been brave enough to look out her window at that moment, she would have known at once that these three creatures were not Blood, Dauros, or Gilmer at all.

Rather, one looked something like a hunched-over wolf with leathery wings, one looked like a dragonesque crab/snake mutant, and one could only be described as a terror-dog from the 1984 film, _Ghostbusters_.

(**a/n: what do you know? Same year **_**Transformers **_**first came out. Actually, a lot of stuff happened that year…**)

The metallic monsters did not share the Decepticon Pretenders' organic exterior, but were simply armored versions of the bizarre animals they were shaped like. The three wantonly smashed buildings and flattened cars as they wandered through the city, trading friendly gibes and jostling each other good-naturedly as they went. They were so engrossed in their mess-making that they failed to notice a bright yellow police car following them until it began to broadcast a loud voice from its speakers.

"_You up there! Yeah, the ugly ones! You're under arrest for intentional property damage, trespassing, and reckless endangerment!"_

"What the-? _Ugly_?" Wilder looked around before spotting the car. "Alright, who's the bozo trying to interrupt Guys' Day Out?"

Captain Fanzone stepped out of his vehicle and narrowed his eyes at the transformed youths, unimpressed. His intense dislike for all things robotic very much extended to Cybertronians and Near-Cybertronians.

"That'd be me, Moe. Now are you, Larry and Curly there going to transform and surrender? Or do I need to add "resisting arrest" to the charges?"

The snake-crab tilted its helm, confused. A childish voice echoed out of it. "Moe….Larry...and...Curly? What's he talking about?"

"Eh, it was before your time, niño." Bullhorn nudged Cancer playfully. "Don't worry about it."

Wilder made a scoffing sound, and his wolf/bat shell ran a paw over its head in a slightly vain gesture. "Well, I'm afraid we can't let you arrest us, captain," he drawled, "But if you're dead set on it, we _can _transform."

The sneering chuckles and muttered agreements did not ease the captain's mood.

The animalistic vehicle-modes contorted into unnatural shapes, trading their bestial forms for more humanoid shapes. With a loud shout of "_Head On!_" in triplicate, the young Decepticons completed their transformation and glared down at the policeman below.

Captain Fanzone tightened his grip on his megaphone as he stared up at the now much-taller robots. "This is why I hate machines!" he groaned. Above him, Wilder leaned down and spread his hands in a mocking gesture.

"Well?" he asked smugly, "Aren't you going to chase us?"

The rotund officer grumbled uncomplimentary things about the boys' parents under his breath as he climbed back into his car and gave chase. The Decepticon hybrid younglings clearly did not care how much damage was done as they crashed through streets, over sidewalks, even through a large central fountain. The captain reflected that this may have been their intention from the beginning, but did not relent in his pursuit until Wilder, laughing, pulled a child from beneath the awning of a shop and dropped her in front of the police car.

The girl's parents cried out in horror, and Captain Fanzone swerved sharply, leaving the bewildered toddler unharmed as he collided with a wall. Shaken, bruised, and with several fractures, it was a miracle that Fanzone was not dead. Wide-eyed and breathing heavily, he strained to catch sight of the troublemakers out of the corner of his eye, unwilling to move his neck until he was sure it was uninjured.

The youngest-sounding one with the magenta and royal blue paint crouched beside the car and giggled. "Not so tough _now_, are you?" Cancer asked. Suddenly, he yelped and launched himself backwards. Bullhorn caught him before he hit the ground.

"What's wrong, Cancer?" he asked.

"L-look! It's repairing itself!" the youngest Decepticon squeaked.

Sure enough, the dents popped back out of their own accord, the scratches vanished into a shiny finish, and the formerly crunched-up car stretched itself like a cat before collapsing back into its normal shape.

"Come on, guys," Wilder backed away. "We need to tell Powell about this."

"Finally, something _good _to tell him," Bullhorn muttered under his breath as the three disappeared down a side street.

Shocked, Captain Fanzone lifted a shaky hand to his radio to call for backup and a medic.

"This is why I _hate _machines!" he hissed.

* * *

><p>"<em>What<em>?!"

Powell's sandwich dropped to the desk with a faint _splat_, leaving a piece of lettuce clinging to his mustache. "You're sure now, absolutely sure it repaired itself?"

"_Yes,"_ Wilder's voice was a little garbled over the line, "_It's got to be a transtector. Weird though, I didn't see any master-braces on the captain though. The idiot probably doesn't even know what he's got there!"_

"Probably not, but you never know," Powell agreed, removing the lettuce from his face. "I'm sending the Seacons to get this one. You boys stay nearby so you can show them where it is when they get there, and bring the captain to me. Understood?"

"_Got it."_ Wilder hung up with a soft clunk.

Porter C. Powell picked up his sandwich once more and exited the office. He took a bite as he stepped into one of the elevators and took it down to a basement level. The majority of the room he exited into was underwater, with a platform extending out over the liquid. He marched out onto the platform and clapped his hands three times as best he could while still holding his sub sandwich.

"Seacons!" he cried imperiously, "I summon you; rise to hear my instructions!"

A splash echoed through the room, and an ungainly kraken-like being hauled itself out of the water, part robotic organism and partly just gross. It flailed its tentacles and made a wet shrieking noise.

Powell raised his eyebrows. "I want you to go into Detroit, find the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors, and bring me back that transtector, understand?" he said in a condescending tone.

The Seacon growled and gibbered, then began scooching back into the water.

"I'll take that as a yes…" Powell grumbled, then noticed what was in one of the tentacles closer to him. "Aw, my sandwich!"

Before he could get it back, the creature launched back into the makeshift lake, sending a geyser of water into the air and down onto the human. With an exasperated sigh, the corrupt businessman trudged upstairs to find a change of clothes, privately vowing that next time he had to summon the Seacons, he would wear a poncho.

* * *

><p>Sari hadn't been much help in easing Bumblebee's troubled thoughts - which was in and of itself evidence of how deeply the turmoil was felt. And so he had continued to walk, avoiding the Other Autobots with some measure of success until he felt a small hand on his arm.<p>

"Bumblebee? Are you alright?"

It was one of the three middle schoolers that hung around the base. Minerva, Bumblebee thought her name was. There was an expression of sympathy in her eyes that Bee really didn't want to see at the moment.

"I'm fine," he said, and winced as the fatal words left his mouth. He'd watched enough human television to know that people usually knew when the words were true and when they weren't.

By now most everyone in the underground bunker knew that Bumblebee was _not_ a Pretender, but thus far no one had brought it up - partly because they hadn't run into the boy, and partly out of fear of hurting him. Minerva observed Bumblebee and took his hand in hers.

"Hey, just because you might not be a Pretender, it doesn't mean you aren't an Autobot," she said. "Cab and Shuta and I combine with suits of armor: we literally merge our atoms with the vehicle. Prowl says organic-based Headmasters have the same legal and social status as sparked Cybertronians on most planets. So if you turn out to be a Headmaster, it wouldn't be too horrible, right?"

It was a valiant attempt, Bumblebee acknowledged that. But he did _not _need to be hearing "at least"s at the moment. He needed empathy rather than sympathy, but he didn't blame Minerva for trying. He gave the girl a half-hearted smile and muttered some polite bit of nonsense. Minerva seemed to sense that she had done a little more harm than good and released his hand with an apologetic look.

"Anyway, you know you're welcome here, right?" she added softly. "Maybe you should go take a walk or something, clear your head? It helps Cab when Shuta starts grandstanding, anyway."

"Yeah, I'll probably do that," Bumblebee couldn't help at least _trying _to lighten the moment - thus giving the appearance that he was less upset than he was - and shrugged. "If giant monsters show up on the street, or you hear a lot of screaming, send Sari after me." Before the younger human could respond, he hurried around the corner and made his way towards the surface once more.

It was dusk now, and a few early stars struggled to be seen through the reflective glare of the city lights. Bumblebee realized that he would only have a few hours to walk before it got completely dark. Human eyes were _not _suited to night vision, he remembered Sari bumping into things when the lights were off - of course, that was _before _her upgrade. With no destination in mind, he wandered aimlessly, only partially aware of where he walked.

"Stop freaking out, Bumblebee!" he muttered under his breath, "Everything will go back to normal once we all go home, right? Right. Sari can fix it." He snorted and wondered - not for the first time - if whoever had programmed Sari's protoform when she first came online had been a transwarp engineer of some kind. "So think of this as a video game. You're just playing a human avatar right now. Yeah, that's it! Just an avatar!"

Spark lightened somewhat, Bumblebee swung his arms back and forth, humming cheerfully. He stopped suddenly, and walked backwards a step or two to peer into an alley.

"Uh oh! A wild bully appeared!" he gulped.

By unlucky chance, he had managed to stumble upon the three boys who had beaten him up at the diner. They appeared to be deep in conversation with some sort of giant robo-squid-mutant. Bumblebee squinted at the creature and decided that it ranked just above space barnacles and just under Professor Sumdac's nanite-infused roach on his list of Too Gross For Me. Oddly, none of the three bullies seemed to be frightened of the squishy robot. Then again, they'd also been the ones pointing and laughing when the three Decepticon Pretenders broke up the protest earlier that day. Perhaps they had simply seen it happen so many times that they were jaded and apathetic towards their fellow humans being put in harm's way?

Out of habit, Bullhorn happened to glance back over his shoulder as they spoke to the Seacon. His eyes widened as he caught sight of Bumblebee, still in a half-walking pose, with a dumbfounded expression. The man left the two younger boys for a moment and marched over to the shocked teen. He didn't really have anything _against_ the yellow-jacket-kid, or humanity, for that matter. But business was business, and by witnessing them talking to a Decepticon, the yellow-jacket-kid was interfering with business. Bullhorn hoisted Bumblebee by the collar and marched him down the narrow street to where his friends stood.

"Uh h-hi!" Bumblebee squeaked. He _really _hoped they weren't still mad about the milkshake and fries debacle earlier...or Sari mocking them in front of everyone.

To his surprise, Wilder offered an affable grin and blew his blue bangs out of his face. "You know, I don't think we had a very good introduction, do you?" His tone was still full of pride and a hint of scorn, but it was not openly hostile.

"N-no," Bumblebee stuttered, "Guess not. And I really _am _sorry about the jacket, you know." _Please don't kill me_. he added silently.

A muscle next to Wilder's eye twitched slightly, but he maintained his smile. "You wanna see something cool?" he asked.

Bumblebee was not stupid. A bit rash, certainly. Naive at times, naturally. But he usually knew hypocrisy when he saw it, and he could tell that Wilder was not being friendly for friendliness' sake. Still, he felt as though playing along for the sake of peace - or the opportunity to make peace - would likely serve him best at the moment. It was what Prowl or Bulkhead would have done, anyway. So he shrugged, and agreed to see this "something cool".

He instantly regretted it.

Wilder, Bullhorn, and Cancer each crossed their wrists in front of them - with a sickening feeling, Bee guessed what was coming next.

"_Masterforce!_" the trio chorused as their bodies changed their basic makeup to form armor, "_Transform: Head On!_"

A thickset blue-gray mech with horn-like appendages coming from his shoulders crossed his arms and glared impressively down at Bumblebee. Beside him, a slim magenta youngling with an almost Seeker-like helm posed dramatically, and the shorter, blue and red mechling beside him just bounced from pede to pede with a mischievous grin on his faceplates.

Bumblebee was almost tempted to laugh: they looked so much like something from one of the Saturday morning anime dubs that he and Sari loved - and that Prowl abhorred - that he was halfway expecting some cheesy catchphrase to come next. The laugh never made it to his lips, as he quickly noticed a very prominent brand on each of the young hybrids' armor.

"You're….you're Decepticons!" he cried out, taking a step back.

They knew he was at least acquainted with Autobots. They'd seen him with Prowl and Lander and Lightfoot that day. _Oh scrap. Did I just become the unlucky human sidekick?_ he wondered as he slowly backed away.

"Maybe we are, and maybe we aren't!" Cancer snorted, finally stilling his frame.

Bumblebee let out an ear-splitting screech and scrambled out of the alley, yelling for Sari at the top of his lungs. He was several blocks away before the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors had time to react.

"Aw," Bullhorn wilted slightly. "But we were about to show him something _really _cool!" he looked forlornly at the arm he had been about to transform into a cannon.

"Leave it!" Wilder cut him off rudely. "The little punk isn't even worth the effort."

Bullhorn's optics darkened, and the self-appointed leader of the small gang quickly changed the subject - he didn't care a whit for his comrades' feelings, but it was not particularly wise to cross Bullhorn too often - back to their original purpose in the alley. "Anyway, we have to go find that transtector. Keeping it out of Autobot hands is more important right now."

"I wonder if this means Hydra and Buster will have a Godmaster _brother_, or Godmaster _sister_?" Cancer mused, mind diverting off into a tangent.

"Depends, niño. We have to find it first," Bullhorn reminded the smaller youngling. "Could be anywhere by now."

"So we _find _it, wherever it's hiding!" Wilder snarled.

Bullhorn brightened visibly. "This means we get to break stuff, right?"

"Lots of stuff!" Cancer high-fived him. "Let's go!"

* * *

><p>"Wait, so that Megatron guy the Pretenders talk about is still alive and actually <em>on Earth <em>in your universe?"

Ginrai leaned forward and handed a mug of coffee to Sari, who sat beside Lightfoot on the couch opposite him. They'd gone over every angle of the Transwarp problem they could, but there was still no explanation for the abrupt universe shift. Ginrai had interrupted the brainstorming session, declaring that they all needed a break before their collective minds melted. As such, he and Lightfoot had decided to show the young femme the base's rec room. Over coffee and a game of Munchkin, Sari had ended up describing her home to the older boys.

"Yep. Everyone thought he'd died after the War, but he just landed on Earth and almost ruined my life." Sari paused and tilted her head back in thought. "Of course, now that I think about it, if he _hadn't _kidnapped my dad and forced me to live with the Autobots, I never would have learned that I was a Cybertronian."

Lightfoot made a face. "How does someone _not_ _know _something like that?!" he asked. The girl shrugged.

"When I landed, I was unstable - maybe because I was separated from wherever I was supposed to be? I don't know - and scanned literally the first living being that touched me. All my programming and subroutines were repurposed to help me fit into the host species. So I breathe, eat, sleep, and function just like you guys do."

"Techno-organic, huh? That's sort of fascinating," Ginrai admitted. He tugged at his chin thoughtfully. "The way you talked about being a protoform and all, I thought you were a Pretender at first. But I guess you'd have to be more like a triple-changer to be human, Autobot, _and _vehicle."

"Yeah." Sari set her mug down. "I don't know what I am. Never knew before, may never find out. Sentinel Prime apparently thought I had Minicon origins, but nothing he says has any credibility anyway. But you know what? I'm good with it. I identify as human just as much as I identify as Cybertronian if not more so. I don't have to be all one or the other."

Lightfoot and Ginrai both raised their mugs in playful salutes with cheerful "Hear hear!"s thrown in.

"I suppose in that regard, you're really closer to a Godmaster or Headmaster in nature," Lightfoot suggested. "We don't really have an explanation for how the transformation process works, but we're just as much Cybertronian as we are human when we're in our Godmaster bodies."

"Except we have alt-modes and she just has a jet-pack," Ginrai argued.

The doors swished open and Hawk strode in. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth when he saw the three socializing as easily as if none of them had been strangers.

"It's nearly 9:00 and you're drinking coffee?" he raised one eyebrow. "None of you are going to be sleeping tonight, you know that, don't you?"

"I do what I want." Ginrai shrugged.

"Yes, you certainly do," the Autobot leader replied in dry tones. "Listen, Ranger called in a report about a possible transtector somewhere in the city. There were also reports of the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors in the area earlier though, so nobody goes in alone."

"Roger that, Captain," Ginrai stood and stretched. "We'll go check it out."

"Sari, I've arranged for rooms for you and your companions for the evening, if you'd like to see," Hawk said to the girl.

"Actually, Hawk, if you don't mind, I'd like to go with Ginrai and Lightfoot. I want to see what a transtector looks like." she answered. One never knew when a transtector might come in handy, if these "masterforce" Autobots were anything to go by. If she could get a good idea of what it looked like and what it was made of, she could try to identify similar items once she got back to her universe. _You mean __if_ _you get back to your home universe._ Sari ignored her thoughts and followed Lightfoot and Ginrai to the garage space next to the ramp down from the warehouse.

"So Lightfoot, who's Ranger?" she asked. She was originally going to ask _What is Ranger? Headmaster, Godmaster, or Pretender? _but then backed out as she thought it didn't quite sound right to ask.

Lightfoot glanced back through a mess of ginger bangs and shrugged. "He's a Godmaster, like us. You haven't met him yet because he spent the weekend out in one of the parks. He does that a lot."

"Well," Ginrai interjected, "He _is _a park ranger. It's kind of what they do, isn't it?"

"Wait." Sari blinked. "I thought you guys all lived down here in the base?"

Ginrai opened the passenger side of his truck and offered Sari a hand up. "Some of us do. But we have lives outside of being Autobots, y'know. I'm a trucker, Lightfoot is part of his family's car dealership busniess, Road King is a professional racer - though don't ever tell him I said he was _professional_ - heck, even the Pretenders have jobs!"

"Seriously?" Sari grinned as she buckled her seatbelt. "What do they do?"

"Well...okay, so I don't _actually_ know what Hawk does," Ginrai admitted, "But Prowl told me once that he used to just walk across the continents because he could, and kind of Robin Hood his way across the globe. And Lander sometimes works as a geologist, while Diver is a marine biologist, Prowl is a policeman, and Phoenix works at a German airfield."

"Diver? Phoenix? Who are they?" Sari's head was beginning to spin - there were just so many names to remember! If this was just a team on Earth, she could hardly imagine trying to remember names while living on a planet like Cybertron!

Ginrai pulled up the ramp behind Lightfoot's car and began the drive through the city, never taking his eyes from the road as he spoke. "Diver sometimes runs the communications hub in California. Phoenix is a code specialist - supposedly just as good as, if not better than, some guy named Soundwave."

"Okay, that _is _kind of impressive," Sari admitted.

In front of a little cafe about six miles from the base, beneath a streetlight, Ranger waited. Sari had been picturing someone with long, shaggy hair, a Viking-esque beard, and probably a sword, just by the name. She was almost a little disappointed to see a man with a reasonable haircut and a two-day beard, and a clean - if rumpled - park ranger's uniform. He stood and waved to Lightfoot and Ginrai, though his hand drooped a little as he caught sight of the girl with them.

"Hey, guys! I've been wa- oh. Good evening, miss. Who might you be?"

"Sari Sumdac, nice to meet you." the girl smiled warmly and shook his hand. "I'm, ah, a visiting Autobot, of sorts."

Ranger nodded. "Cool. What kind?"

Sari shrugged.

Ginrai pushed between the two with a mildly amused expression. "Alright, you can flirt later," he smirked, ignoring Ranger's irritated protestations to the contrary, "I'd like to find the transtector _before _midnight so that I can actually sleep a little before work tomorrow. Where did you see it?"

"Close to the local police station," Ranger answered. "According to my sources, the car belongs to a certain Captain Fanzone-"

Sari choked back a snort and became acutely aware of everyone's eyes on her. Face flushing, she attempted to explain. "Ah, sorry. I know the guy back in my universe. His car is actually Bumblebee's alt mode. Or would be, if he wasn't human right now."

Ranger's eyes widened and he looked from face to face as they returned to their vehicles, desperately hoping it was a joke. "Your universe? Bumblebee? Alt mode for a human?! What am I missing here?"

Lightfoot slid behind the wheel of his car and shrugged. "We'll explain later. Let's not waste time here though, shall we?"

"Fair enough." Ranger pulled his own dark green baja buggy out of the parking lot and made for the police station.

* * *

><p><em>Earlier that day...<em>

In his lifetime, Lord Giga had done many things in the service of his master. "Devil Z", (**pronounced "Devil Zed"**) self-proclaimed supreme master of all Decepticons, was neither just nor honorable as a ruler, and by comparison would make Megatron seem like a benevolent paragon of virtue. Yet Giga owed everything he was to Devil Z and served him without question. As such, he had done terrible terrible things; he'd stood up to his ankles in blood, killed innocents, left cities burning, and yet nothing was so distasteful to him as this: Devil Z had ordered him to masquerade as a businessman.

The golfing and fancy events had been - and still were - quite enjoyable, but the _paperwork_, oh the _paperwork_! It never ended! Invoices, requests, shipments, labor problems, and meetings that dragged on until he was quite sure he could feel the life leaving his body second by second. Even now he sat at a sturdy oak desk listening to some of his investment advisors blather on. Head propped up on one hand, he did his best to remain awake until after two hours, he could stand it no longer.

"Gentlemen, you'll have to excuse me," he purred, "But it's gotten rather late. May we adjourn until tomorrow, when I'll be able to give you my full attention?"

"Of course, Mr. Giga," one of the men nodded in a conciliatory manner. "We'll come back tomorrow."

Giga forced a tight smile. "I'll be looking forward to it. Good day, gentlemen."

The second the investment advisors were safely out of his way, he all but ran to his Bugatti Veyron and headed for the docks at several miles over the speed limit. A small boat waited there to take him to the Decepticon base, out past the harbor to an island named - oddly, he thought - after the legendary Autobot Dinobots. Once away from the shore, Giga crossed his wrists and murmured, "_Masterforce!_"

Ornate, almost ceremonial, armor replaced the three-piece suit, granting him the appearance of a barbaric king from bygone days. A stiff breeze blew his long black braid away from his skull and sent it whipping back and forth behind him. Giga pulled the boat up to a sheltered dock on the far side of the island and hurried to a large grey rock several lines of trees into the island interior. Of course, it was not an ordinary rock. What sort of villain would he be, after all, without a secret lair with an improbable hidden entrance? It had proven its merit multiple times by being "so overt, it's covert" as the Hydra brothers liked to say.

Down the several flights of stairs beneath the rock, the walls were cool and well lit. Nothing _seemed _out of place, but when Giga came to the base of the stairs, red flags began to wave in his mind. His wife, Lady Mega, appeared to have gathered everyone - the Juniors, Hydra and Buster the Godmasters, Powell, and the two remaining Pretenders, Blitzwing and Lugnut. Mega's otherwise beautiful features were twisted into a troubled frown.

"What's wrong?" Giga asked bluntly, not allowing for prevarication.

"It seems there was a little trouble in the city today with some protesters," Mega answered dryly, glancing at Powell, who shrugged.

"I'm aware, my dear." Giga crossed the space between them and kissed the back of her hand. "Powell informed me when it happened. Protesting humans are _hardly _worth our time. I sent Blood, Gilmer, and Dauros out to deal with it."

"Which we appreciate, by the way," the icy calm face of the triple changer, Blitzwing, interjected, "They were becoming tiresome."

"Pah! They do not remember what it is like to be a _real _Decepticon!" Lugnut muttered under his breath behind them.

"Hey boss, what about the police chief's car?" Bullhorn crossed his thick arms and frowned. "We saw it repair itself. Powell even sent a Seacon out to retrieve it."

"Yeah," Wilder sneered, "We had to show it where the car was, but then Powell made us come back!"

Giga's eyes widened. Was it possible? Another Godmaster, unsullied by Autobot lies? He looked to his wife, and her eyes shone as brightly as his. The possibility of another one of their Decepticon children rejoining the fold was more than worth the risk. But a Seacon was hardly the right choice for retrieving such an important asset.

"The transtector must be brought back here safely!" he decided, smacking his fist into his palm, "With no mistakes, this time!" He didn't quite notice Bullhorn shove Cancer forward until the small boy tugged on his arm.

"Can we do it?" Cancer clasped his hands behind his back and widened his eyes. Behind him, Wilder jabbed his back and whispered, "_Stick out your lip! It'll help!_"

Upon taking his comrade's advice, Cancer rocked back and forth on his heels and squeaked, "Pleeease? We'll bring it back, promise!"

Giga and Mega attempted to remain stoic, but Wilder and Bullhorn had long since learned to use Cancer against them.

"Oh, very well. But be mindful of your surroundings!" Giga scolded. "Don't get distracted by the Junior Autobots if the transtector is present. We don't have time for your little grudges."

The trio whooped and high-fived in celebration.

"What?! Why do _they _get to go?" Hydra sputtered, shocked.

"Yeah! Why not send us?" Buster pleaded.

Mega snorted. "After this morning's rather spectacular defeat and retreat? I think not."

"Not until you two learn not to cut and run just because another Godmaster has a special ability," Giga added.

A fourth voice joined the Junior Decepticons' noisy cheers as Browning - a microminicon given to Cancer as a birthday present/friend - climbed up into his human's wild mass of hair and waved his little arms.

"Let's go get 'em, boss!" he squeaked, pumping a fist into the air.

"Yeah!" Cancer ran for his snake-crab vehicle, followed by the other two boys.

* * *

><p><em>Present…<em>

Sari walked around the compact yellow car and nodded. "Yep, this is _definitely _the one."

Ginrai walked forward, hands in his pockets, where the extra sets of master-braces were. Before he had a chance to inspect the transtector, they were unceremoniously interrupted by the most hideous grouping of robotic sealife Sari had ever seen. (Well, if she were to be _completely _honest, it was the _only _grouping of robotic sealife Sari had ever seen.) Some looked like octopuses, some had more of a classic fish look, and one even looked suspiciously like Gamera.

"_What_ are _those_?" Sari wrinkled her nose in disgust and pointed at the creatures.

Lightfoot made a scoffing noise and activated his armor. "Seacons," he snarled, "Resident Animatronian hybrid-mutants with a penchant for eating boats. Probably wouldn't surprise you to know Powell invented them."

Sari reflected a moment. "No, you're right. That doesn't surprise me at all." She crossed her wrists, then flung them out to the sides as she transformed into her battle mode, just to mess with the ugly creatures' minds. For all they knew, she was another member of the Autobot team here that they hadn't met yet.

The turtle shambled forward and caught sight of the gathered Autobots. Through gritted denta - oddly out of place on a turtle's face - it growled, "Form King Poseidon!"

With several very discomfiting squelching noises, the mechanical marine life exhibit stacked itself up and into a trident-wielding warrior as tall as Super Ginrai. He looked down at the team, recognizing the three Godmasters, but unsure of who Sari was.

"What is this?" he/they roared, "You think so little of me that you bring a little child to fight me?"

Sari's optics narrowed. Even in a world where the Autobots spent most of their time in human shapes, she was not free from wisecracks about her comparative size. "This _child _is about to kick your butt!" she snapped, and brought her war-hammer out of subspace with a twirl.

"And even if she _is _small, _I _am not!"

Ginrai pushed past the younger Autobot and crossed his wrists, repeating the command codes to transform, and adding, "_God On: Super Ginrai!" _As he had done the first time Sari saw him, the mech combined with his trailer and grew until he stood optic to optic with Poseidon.

"You already know how this is going to end, don't you, Poseidon?" Ranger and Lightfoot followed Ginrai's lead and transformed as well. Though they only stood about half as high as their leader, they were no less ready to fight. Sari activated her jetpacks, only slightly intimidated, and hovered next to them, waiting.

"So cocky, Autobots!" Poseidon chuckled. "You act like my companions aren't going to join the fight!" He motioned to several other Seacons, waving tentacles and fins and burbling angrily. "Seacons, attack!"

* * *

><p>Bumblebee wasn't sure how long he'd been running, but he was completely lost.<p>

The fish-bot and the three bullies/Decepticons weren't following him - in fact, he hadn't seen them for a good couple of hours. The trouble was, everything looked so _different _from this height, and without an internal navigation system, he couldn't just home in on the base and go back. So he'd been dashing from one street to the next, hoping for a familiar landmark.

From three blocks over, he saw a flash of light, followed by the sound of an explosion a split second later. The familiar sound of metal against metal and blaster fire caught his attention and alerted him to the fact that there was another battle going on.

"Yeesh, even _we _didn't have fights _this _often back home!" he muttered to himself. Well, at least if there was a fight going on, it meant that there were Autobots who could take him back to the base. He started in the direction of the fracas when he heard a girl's voice cry out in pain. He paled and squinted into the darkness. His eyes widened when he recognized the voice.

"Sari!" he gasped. "I'm coming!"

* * *

><p>For all their ungainly squishiness, Sari had to admit that the Seacons were skilled fighters. Or perhaps it was just that they were big and fast and relentless. She shut down her jetpack and let herself go into a freefall to avoid one tentacle, then activated her rocket-skates to blast down across the beast's body, smashing her war-hammer into its beak. Disoriented, it flailed wildly, catching one of its companions across the chest before hitting the ground. Sari cringed, but plunged her wrist blades into the rubbery techno-organic's optics, cracking them and blinding it.<p>

Another Seacon skirted the thrashing body of its fellow and charged Ranger. The green Autobot responded in kind, fist drawn back for a heavy blow. As the Seacon ducked and drove its tentacles before it to knock the mech off-balance, Ranger revealed the punch to be a feint. He drew back both arms and thrust them forward, releasing a blast of superheated air.

The squidlike Decepticon screeched horribly as the heat blast melted through its tough hide, revealing a rudimentary spark-casing, which was quickly destroyed by a second heat wave.

Above them, Poseidon and Super-Ginrai battled, destroying the pavement beneath them as they moved. The Seacon combiner released something he called "_Turtler Shot_" - leaving Sari to wonder why and oh why was everyone broadcasting their moves before using them? - and blasted right through Ginrai's upraised left arm, barely missing the joint.

Ginrai hissed in pain, but merely shook out the damaged limb and allowed the transtector material to begin knitting itself back together. "_Energos Power,_" he murmured quietly, a command to a waiting program in his systems that had been charging for most of the day.

(**note: "energos power" is derived from "energon power", the English sub's name for "chokon power" in Masterforce**)

Emanating from the engine block on his chest and expanding, colored lights ran across Ginrai's armor, coming to a focused point at his hands. He directed the lights at King Poseidon in a single burst, knocking the tyrant fish onto his back.

Poseidon threw out his trident, trapping Ginrai's wrist as the Autobot moved in for the kill, and so the battle continued.

Considering the fact that the noise from the debacle could be heard three blocks over, it was a wonder that anyone heard the rough human at all. Given the improbability of a human being able to project its voice so far, the combatants on both sides froze when they heard someone shout, "What in the name of Martha Washington's cat is going on here?!"

Captain Carmine Fanzone was not thrilled. He'd just finished most of the paperwork for the Junior Decepticon incident, and now there were heaven knows how many more, right on his doorstep? He pointed a thick finger at the collected mechanical lifeforms.

"I have _not _had enough coffee today to deal with the likes of you!"

The small gang seemed to blink for a moment before Poseidon rumbled, "It's the transtector's human!" as he realized who the balding man was.

"The _what _now?" Fanzone fixed the combiner with a dour stare.

Ginrai looked from the downed Poseidon to the human and back again. "Lightfoot, take over for me, will ya?"

"Got it, boss."

Ginrai shifted down into his human body just in time to avoid Lightfoot, who caught Poseidon with a flying tackle, restarting the battle with a vengeance. The human ducked and sidestepped the brawlers until he came to Captain Fanzone and grinned apologetically.

"Transtector," he said. "Basically, we're talking about your car. I'll keep it as vague as I can: It's half of an alien from another planet, just missing its spark/other half." Ginrai took the gold master-braces from his coat pocket and held them out. "Here, put these on your wrists."

"Why?" the policeman glared suspiciously at the younger man. He wasn't even sure if the trucker was actually human, given that he'd just gone from being a robot to being a college kid.

"Look, just trust me, okay? I know it sounds weird, but it'll protect you." Ginrai shoved the bracelets at Fanzone, who grudgingly accepted them.

* * *

><p>"Will you guys hurry up? Lord Giga said no mistakes this time!"<p>

Cancer had abandoned his vehicle mode and dashed through an alley in just his smaller armor suit. They'd almost made it to the transtector, but Wilder had been trying to snipe the Autobots from behind a building and slowed them down.

"Well if you're so quick then _you _go get it!" Wilder hissed. "Go get those bracelets!"

Cancer spotted a second figure running out of the corner of his eye, but ignored it. He reached the end of the alley just as Fanzone took the bracelets and began to put them on.

* * *

><p>Bumblebee burst onto the street in time to see a free-for-all between two Autobots - one was Lightfoot and the other he didn't recognize - and more of the squid-bots. Desperately, he scanned the scene for his best friend, but did not see her.<p>

"Sari? Sari, where are you?" he called, running into the mess of offlined Seacons and fighting mechs without a second thought. He caught sight of Ginrai standing with what appeared to be Captain Fanzone and figured that they were as good a place to start as any.

"Hey, have you seen-?" he began as he noticed a pair of gold hoops slide off the Captain's wrists.

* * *

><p>"Gyah!" Captain Fanzone jerked his arms back. "Creepy little - whatsamatter with you, trying to get that freaky tech on me? I don't want any!"<p>

The braces flew into the air, bouncing off a Seacon's head.

"I got it!" Cancer darted past the two men, shoving Fanzone into Ginrai as he passed.

* * *

><p>Bumblebee turned his head quickly, having heard a familiar voice taunting an enemy.<p>

Sari stood between two Seacons, looking tired but unwilling to slow down. More determined than ever to reach his friend, Bumblebee moved quickly towards her. The first Seacon slammed a tentacle down onto the cracked pavement, sending rubble every which way. One of the stones caught Bumblebee's foot, sending him crashing to the ground. He rolled over onto his back and saw something falling towards him. Instinctively, he threw out his arms to block it.

Something cool and round and so wonderfully _Cybertronian _slid down around his wrists and locked into place. Bumblebee blinked at the gold cuffs gleaming on his arms and slowly a wide smile spread across his face.

Cancer stood frozen mid-step, not two feet away, hand outstretched.

"Ooh." Browning clicked his tongue disapprovingly from Cancer's shoulder. "Missed it by _that _much."

The ten year old made a rather pathetic noise and hung his head. "Wilder's gonna kill me."

"Yes, yes I am." Wilder loomed suddenly over the smaller boy, with Bullhorn at his back. Both were glaring.

Ginrai helped Captain Fanzone to his feet and shoved past the three Decepticon Headmasters. "Bumblebee," he called out, muffled by the sound of the battle, "Use the command code sequence I used earlier! _Masterforce - Transform - God On!_"

Ah well, what could it hurt at this point? Bumblebee shrugged and did as he was told. The sensation of changing from a human body to a Cybertronian one, oddly enough, felt very similar to trading a robot mode for a vehicle mode. Bee shook out his arms and glanced into the shadowy reflection of the nearest building's windows - distorted somewhat by the streetlights and the fires from the explosions.

Helm, check. Chassis, check. Racing stripe, check. Bumblebee revved his engine and threw his arms out to the sides. "Alright! It's good to be back!"

One of his arms struck a streetlight, instantly crumpling it with a shriek of distressed metal and a breaking of glass.

"Oops." Bee squinted down at it. "Either I'm stronger than I remember, or this thing wasn't built to code."

Across the small parking lot, Wilder was beyond furious. The chance at having another Decepticon Godmaster had just slipped through their fingers - nearly literally - to land in the hands of the same klutzy human who had humiliated him at the Burger Bot! If he started to realize his own power as a Godmaster, he would lose his fear of Wilder, and by and by others might too! Oh, this was not to be borne. Wilder transformed into his robot mode, tersely ordering his comrades to do the same. Arms crossed, he channeled all his anger into a mocking laugh, and stood as nonchalantly as he could.

"How sad is that?" he sneered, ignoring Bullhorn's warning looks, "That transtector must've been _so _tired of being that slob of a policeman's car that it threw itself at the first loser to walk by! If transtectors had feelings, yours would be kicking itself right now. It chose the weakest little kid I've ever seen - and that's _after _taking Cancer into the equation!"

"Hey!" Cancer yelped, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Bumblebee clenched his fists and glanced down at Sari, who was taking advantage of her opponent's temporary distraction to smash his tentacle with her war-hammer.

"Can I fight him _now_?" he asked dryly.

Sari crouched, then leapt up with a twirl, driving the hammer into the Seacon's face. As it dropped, she leaned on the weapon, exhausted.

"All yours," she gasped, waving towards Wilder.

Bumblebee charged, but Wilder had height and experience on his side, and stepped to the side, trapping Bumblebee's arm. He struck him in the face and then flipped him over his shoulder and onto the pavement, smirking all the while.

Now, generally speaking, Bumblebee was a good-natured Autobot. Sometimes, he was even downright sweet. Today, however, he did _not _feel like being good, sweet, or even-tempered in the slightest. He was sick of bullies, of dimension-hops, of feeling overwhelmingly out of place. He wanted to go _home_, where he was _always _a robot, and they had Optimus to make the tough calls.

Given this attitude, perhaps it was rather understandable when Bumblebee completely lost his temper. His optics glowed brightly as a surge of energy like an Allspark upgrade flooded his systems. Bumblebee launched himself up from the ground in time to catch Wilder's punch in one hand. Without really knowing why, he brought his other hand down in a diagonal motion, shouting, "_Voltage Slash!_"

Long, blue bolts of electricity arced over his arms and out very nearly in the shape of a blade, striking the Decepticon across the chestplates. Lights flickered and failed as a long gash opened across the magenta plating as Wilder let out a yell.

King Poseidon - beginning to break into his individual components, thanks to Ginrai rejoining the fight - and the Seacons looked up, surprised. Wilder? Injured in battle? This was a thing nearly unheard-of. So unusual was it, that when the shaking and incensed teenager ordered a retreat, they did not question him.

Wilder's hate-laden optics met Bumblebee's as he stepped back into the shadows outside the streetlights. "I'm going to make you regret this moment for the rest of your considerably shortened life!" he snarled before turning his back and fleeing.

The other three Godmasters and Sari gathered around Bumblebee as he reluctantly shifted back down into a human body.

"Kid, that was brilliant!" Ranger affectionately punched the boy's shoulder and grinned as Lightfoot offered congratulations.

"_Voltage Slash_, huh?" Ginrai's eyes twinkled. "Nice."

Sari threw her arms around the shorter teen, then squeaked in surprise as a little volt of leftover electricity shocked her. She glanced up at her somewhat poofier hair, then shrugged and laughed. "I'm so proud of you, 'Bee!" she grinned into his shoulder. "Who was that guy, anyway?"

"That was the kid that beat me up in the diner, actually," he said absently. Sari blinked.

"Betcha that punk thinks twice before messing with you again, huh?" Another thought occurred to her and she pulled away slightly. "So where did that big finishing move come from?" she asked, "I didn't know you could do that!"

"Neither did I!" Bumblebee shook his head in amazement, "But I like it!"

Ginrai turned to Captian Fanzone with an apologetic smile. "We're very sorry about your car, Captain. The Autobots will have a replacement ready for you in two to three business days, don't worry. And somebody should contact you about the collateral damage in the morning."

The Autobot commander turned to the rest of his group and waved his arms at them. "Come on, guys, it's almost midnight! Can we go home now?"

Amid general agreement and smirks, he climbed into his waiting semi truck and grumbled out the window, "Just move, already! Transform and roll out!"

As the vehicles pulled away, Fanzone was left staring at the smoking wreckage of what had once been a perfectly good street and parking lot. This would make going out on rounds extremely difficult for the officers, not to mention the paperwork it would mean. With a loud groan, Carmine Fanzone slapped a palm to his forehead.

"_This _is why I _hate _machines!"


End file.
